MOSCOW, August 24 - RAPSI. After having been convicted on 77 counts of murder and terrorism charges Friday by a panel of judges in an Oslo first-instance court, Norwegian mass killer Anders Behring Breivik was sentenced to maximum penalty of 21 years in prison, which can be extended for as long as he is considered a danger to society.

While Breivik has confessed to having killed eight people in an Oslo bombing, and having gunned down another 69 at a youth camp on nearby Utoya Island on July 22, 2011, he has refrained from admitting guilt for the crimes that he has been charged with in this connection, claiming that he had acted in "self-defense." In the mind of the 33-year-old Norwegian-whose sanity has posed a central issue throughout the trial-his actions were necessitated by what he perceived as the threat of multiculturalism in Norway, and as such, he has requested acquittal.

Breivik was formally charged last March with acts of terror and voluntary homicide.

The ensuing trial centered largely on his soundness of mind. The two psychiatric evaluations conducted on Breivik during the course of the proceedings produced conflicting results. The first held that he was psychotic, thus prompting prosecutors to suggest he carry out his sentence in a psychiatric ward. The second held that he was of sound mind.