OSLO, Norway — With a rambling monologue depicting Norway’s worst peacetime massacre as a necessary evil, confessed mass killer Anders Behring Breivik got the last word as his 10-week trial ended Friday amid conflicting claims about his sanity.

Relatives of his 77 victims said they hope it’s the last they hear of him.

“For me this is not about whether he’s mentally competent or not,” said Unni Espeland, whose 16-year-old daughter Andrine was killed in Breivik’s shooting massacre at a political youth camp. “For me this is about him never being let out again.”

Since the self-styled anti-Muslim fanatic admitted to the twin attacks on July 22 — a car bomb in downtown Oslo followed by the shooting spree at the governing Labor Party’s youth camp — his sanity was the key issue to be resolved in the trial.

Breivik, 33, rejected prosecutors’ assertion that he is insane, but it was unclear whether he helped his case with a closing statement that included complaints against the TV show Sex and the City and the Eurovision Song contest.

He demanded to be set free, saying his actions “were preventive attacks to defend the indigenous Norwegian people” and vowed that he would be exonerated by history.

But it was the relatives of victims who left the strongest impression on the court on the final day as they tried to put their loss in words.

Lara Rashid, 17, told the court she was consumed with feelings of guilt for having survived the Utoya massacre, while her older sister Bano was killed.

“It should have been me,” Rashid said, her voice cracking.

Their Kurdish family fled from Saddam Hussein’s Iraq to build a new life in safe and peaceful Norway. Despite the grief and emptiness, Rashid said she had begun to feel hope.

“Bano fought for a multicultural Norway, and at her funeral she showed that a priest and an imam could go side by side,” Rashid said.

Kirsti Loevlie, whose 30-year-old daughter Hanne was killed in the bombing, moved the courtroom to tears as she described the shock of finding out her daughter was dead, the grief of cleaning out her room and the first Christmas without her.

Still, Loevlie said she felt a need to attend the trial, seeing Breivik in a position where he couldn’t hurt anyone anymore.

“I am not going to be afraid of this man,” Loevlie said. “I decided I would go to court. I felt I owed it to Hanne.”

The court room burst out in applause and audible sobs as she finished her statement.

Breivik remained motionless, his face blank.

Earlier Friday, defence lawyer Geir Lippestad had tried to prove to the court that Breivik’s claims of being a resistance fighter in a struggle to protect Norway and Europe from being colonized by Muslims are not delusional, but part of a political view shared by other right-wing extremists.

“He realized that it is wrong to kill, but he chose to kill. That’s what terrorists do,” Lippestad said. “The ends justify the means. You don’t understand this if you don’t understand the culture of right-wing extremists.”

Lippestad also formally entered a plea for acquittal, but it was made out of principle, without any realistic chance of success.

When Breivik addressed the court, he lashed out at everything he finds wrong with the world, from the Labor Party’s immigration policies, to non-ethnic Norwegians representing the country in the Eurovision Song Contest and the sexually liberated lifestyle of the characters Carrie and Samantha in Sex and the City.

“These are the ideals that are presented to our sisters and daughters today,” he said. “They should be censored and removed from our society.”

Incorporating current events into his statement, he claimed that fellow right-wing extremists were behind a small amount of explosives found outside a Swedish nuclear plant this week. Swedish police spokesman Tommy Nyman said he had no comment, “especially not if he says it.”

Two teams of psychiatrists reached opposite conclusions about Breivik’s mental health. The first team diagnosed him with “paranoid schizophrenia,” a serious mental illness. The second team found him legally sane, saying he suffers from a dissocial and narcissistic personality disorder, but is not psychotic.

Prosecutors on Thursday called for an insanity ruling, saying there was enough doubt about Breivik’s mental state to preclude a prison sentence.

The five-judge panel will announce its ruling on Aug. 24, chief judge Wenche Elisabeth Arntzen said.

If deemed mentally competent, Breivik would likely be given Norway’s maximum prison term of 21 years. A sentence can be extended beyond that if a prisoner is considered a menace to society. If declared insane, he would be committed to a mental institution for as long as he’s considered sick and dangerous to others. Prosecutors suggested Thursday that could mean he would be held for the rest of his life.

Either way, the discussion about what prompted Breivik to commit an atrocity that Norway had never imagined is likely to continue.

“Whether or not he will be declared sane there are political ideas, political motives behind this attack,” said Eskil Pedersen, the head of the Labor Party’s youth wing and an Utoya survivor.

KEY MOMENTS AT TRIAL:

OSLO, Norway — A trial that has riveted Norway for 10 weeks came to an end Friday. Confessed mass killer Anders Behring Breivik must then wait a month or two for a ruling by the Oslo district court.

Here are some of the key moments in the trial, which started on April 16 in a courtroom built specifically for the trial in Oslo’s district court.

• KILLER’S TEARS: On the first day Breivik cried. It’s the only time he showed any emotion during the trial. The tears rolled down his cheeks when prosecutors showed a YouTube video he posted online before the attacks, outlining his perception that Muslims are colonizing Europe and that Christian Europeans will rise up in armed revolt. Breivik’s defence lawyer Geir Lippestad said that the 33-year-old Norwegian was moved by being reminded of his self-imposed mission to “save Europe from an ongoing war.”
• DEFIANT SALUTE: For the first two days Breivik greeted the court with his own version of a fascist salute. He stopped after his lawyers told him that the victims’ families found it offensive. On the penultimate day, after prosecutors asked for an insanity ruling that he rejected, the salute was back. Defiantly, Breivik thrust out his right arm with a clenched fist. This time he directed it straight at the prosecutors.
• HORRIFIC TESTIMONY: Survivors of the bombing in Oslo and the shooting massacre on Utoya island gave harrowing accounts of Breivik’s rampage. But the most gruesome testimony was from the gunman himself. Sparing no detail, he took a shocked courtroom through his killing spree on Utoya, victim by victim, bullet by bullet. His voice never cracked. His facial expression remained blank. Breivik’s utter lack of emotion and empathy was seen by some psychiatrists as a symptom of a deep mental illness.
• SHOE-THROWER: It was the only outburst of anger during the entire trial: An Iraqi man whose brother was killed on Utoya took off his shoe and tossed it at Breivik on May 11, hitting one of his defence lawyers. The hearing was briefly suspended as the man was led out of the court, crying. Besides that incident, the relatives of victims kept remarkably calm, saying they wanted to respect the judicial process. Some said Breivik must not have any opportunity to claim he didn’t get a fair trial when it’s all over.
• PSCYCHIATRIC FEUD: The last weeks of the trial focused on Breivik’s mental state. Two teams of court-appointed psychiatrists presented clashing views. Other experts were called in to give their opinion. Prosecutors finally said there was enough doubt about whether Breivik is psychotic that Norwegian rules required them to call for an insanity ruling.
• WHAT’S NEXT?: The five-judge panel has not set the date of the ruling yet but it’s not going to be before July 20. If the court agrees with the prosecution’s assertion that Breivik is insane, they cannot impose a prison sentence but will commit him to compulsory psychiatric care. If declared criminally sane he would likely face the maximum prison sentence in Norway: 21 years.