In a twist rarely seen in the United States, Norwegian Prosecutors are claiming Anders Breivik is insane while the defense denies it.

The 33-year-old Norwegian is charged and has admitted to the killings in the double attack in that country that took the lives of 77 people. 69 of those killed were attending a youth camp on an island outside of Oslo. Prior to that slaughter on the island, Breivik set off a bomb that killed 8 people in the city center of the capitol of Norway.

Breivik says that he is sane and acted in self-defense.

Both the prosecution and the defense have spent two days giving evidence either for or against the government’s claim of insanity in the 10-day-long trial of Breivik. There are two different court-ordered evaluations done on the defendent and both come to different conclusions.

Anders Behring Breivik said in April that the first report declaring him insane was based on “fabrications” by court appointed psychiatrists. He has previously said an insanity ruling would be “worse than death.”

Details of the first assesment was inadvertantly made public by none other than the head of the Norwegian Board of Forensic Medicine. When details came out from NRK Norway’s public broadcaster, Dr Tarjei Rynestad called police to report that his office was bugged. But, after examining the Doctors’s phone records, it was found that the information was leaked by the doctor when he took a phonecall from NRK prior to a meeting of the board’s psychiatric group discussing Breivik’s case. When he finished talking to a NRK reporter, the doctor failed to hang up the phone and the reporter was able to listen in on 53 minutes of meeting details.

Both groups of doctors, the pro-insanity and pro-sanity alike are using the same evidence to come to different conclusions. Both used the fact that Breivik was obsessed with and played the game “World of Warcraft” insessantly. One group says that is evidence of withdrawal which they claim often precipitates psychosis. The other group says that he did not withdraw but merely replaced one group of friends with another equally valid set of friends online.

Looking at a different aspect of Breivik’s life, the first group points to the months of planning of the attacks as psychotic tunnel vision, the other groups says that the months of planning was evidence of high functionality. Breivik agrees with the latter.

As a child, at age four, Breivik had been diagnosed as having symptoms of psychopathology. But, Breivik would seem to grow out of the condition and turned into a seemingly ordinary adult. Both sides used the testimony of his friends to come to different conclusions about Breivik’s mental health.

The group claiming insanity says that the first assesment, that came out about a month after the vicious attack is more valid and spoke of the man’s condition at the time of the attack and the time immediately following it. But, because that report was inadvertantly made public and thus accessed by Breivik, he was able to modify some of the rhetoric that he used such as claiming he might one day become the Regent of Norway or Europe. The second group of doctors jumped on the fact that he had disavowed much of what he said earlier, that his ability to modify his behavior pointed to him not suffering any delusions.

The court has so far heard diagnoses of a myriad of different conditions that Breivik suffers from, including Asbergers,Tourettes,psychotic personality disorder, and gaming addiction.

With the trial due to end in just days, if the prosecution has its way, Breivik will not be held accountable for his crimes, but instead will be interred in a pychiatric facility. But, if the defense wins out, Breivik will go to prison for 21 years, the maximum allowed time in Norway. Although, if he shows any sign that he is still a danger after that time, he can be held longer.

In a Norwegian poll taken by Norstat and released today, 74% of Norwegians polled say that Breivik is competent enough to be sentenced to prison, while 10 % say he is undoubtedly insane. The rest of those polled were undecided, the margin of error on that poll is +/-3%.

The decision made in the coming days, and the outcome of the trial will influence whether Norway’s worst peacetime massacre goes down in history as right-wing terrorism or as the work of a bloodthirsty madman.