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Dublin: 19 °C Wednesday 19 June, 2013

Norway’s police chief quits after Breivik report

A major report this week found that Norwegian authorities could have stopped Anders Behring Breivik.

Image: AP Photo/Frank Augstein

NORWAY’S POLICE CHIEF has resigned after a major report found that mass killer Anders Behring Breivik could have been stopped if authorities had intervened in time.

Oeystein Maeland took up his role days before Breivik carried out a car bombing in Oslo and a mass shooting on Utoya Island, killing 77 people.

He stepped down on Thursday, saying that he could not continue in his role if he had lost the confidence of the Minister for Justice, Grete Faremo.

The report published on Monday found that police could have prevented the first of the two attacks and arrested Breivik before he carried out the atrocity on Utoya if they had made use of security measures which were already in place.

Norway’s Prime Minister was also under pressure this week after one of the country’s largest newspapers urged him to step down for being ultimately responsible for failures by public authorities to prevent the attacks.

Breivik has admitted to carrying out the attacks but argues that he was a political terrorist who chose political targets. He is due to be sentenced on 24 August.

Read: Oslo attack ‘could have been prevented’ >

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Comments (8 Comments)

  • An honourable man indeed! It seems Norway doesn’t accept claptrap like systems failure that we regularly hear in this country! Who has taken responsibility for the unacceptable amount of children who died in state care over the last 10 years, for example!! No one of course! The people in power in this country sicken me!

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  • So that’s what accountability means…

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  • Integrity, honesty and altruism… Adjectives that I don’t think exist in the vocabulary of those who are running this country. Please…. Learn and lead by example.

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  • The Scandinavians definitely have a different sense of accountability. I li ed in Stockholm years ago and remember a politician getting into hot water because she had purchased a packet of pampers on the way home at a petrol station on her govt account , well the uproar , i think she stood down over the matter . I know it seems extreme , ur contrast with the scale of serious cost f ups here and the total lack of accountability is massive.

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  • Good man. The Prime Minister ought also to go. S/he is where the buck finally stops. So also the Minister responsible for the police. Politicians will never do that ! Further the man who resigned had only been appointed Chief of Police a few days earlier ! He had no responsibility , in practical terms. He’s a good one.

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  • I’m not sure about the Prime Minister, he doesn’t have direct control over the police. The minister of Justice is different though.

    Very rare to see such an honourable act from someone as high up in public service as Mr. Maeland, especially as he was only in the office a few days before the killings. I hope it doesn’t take an atrocity of this size before Ireland’s ‘’’leaders’’’ learn by example.

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  • Ireland’s leaders will never learn about integrity or accountability. Why should they? Nothing is ever their fault and their mantra is “I did nothing wrong”.
    What an honourable man!

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  • I didn’t lie in Stockholm , I lived…oops typo..

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