The fanatic has sued the State to force him to end his isolation in prison.
A lawsuit filed by far-right fanatic and mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik has been opened in Norway, accusing the state of abusing his human rights.
Breivik, who killed 77 people in a bombing and shooting in 2011, appeared Monday in court at the high-security prison where he is serving his sentence. By accusing Norway’s Justice Ministry of violating his human rights, he hopes to force authorities to end his years of isolation.
The 44-year-old killer’s lawyer argued that the conditions of his detention violated his human rights.
“He has been isolated for about 12 years,” Oeystein Storrvik said at the hearing. “He is only in contact with professionals, not with other inmates.”
In previous court filings, Storrvik had argued that isolation had left Breivik suicidal and dependent on the anti-depression drug Prozac.
Breivik claims that the isolation he has faced since he began serving his prison sentence in 2012 amounts to inhuman punishment under the European Convention on Human Rights. She failed in a similar attempt in 2016-17, when her appeal was dismissed by the European Court of Justice.
The extremist, who distributed copies of a manifesto before his attack, has sued the state and also asked the court to lift restrictions on his correspondence with the outside world.
He killed eight people with a car bomb in Oslo and then shot dead 69 others, most of them teenagers, at a Labor Party youth camp. It was the worst atrocity committed in peacetime Norway.
Breivik spends his time in a specific section of Ringerike Prison, the third prison in which he has been held. Its separate section includes a training room, a kitchen, a TV room and a bathroom, footage from a visit last month by the NTB news agency shows.
You are allowed to keep three parakeets as pets and let them fly freely in the area, NTB reported.
Extremist influence
Lawyers representing the Justice Ministry say Breivik should be kept separate from the rest of the prison population because of the continued security threat he poses.
They said in his court filing that his isolation was “relative” given that he has contacts with guards, a priest, health professionals and, until recently, an outside volunteer. Breivik has said that he no longer wishes to see the latter.
He also sees two inmates for an hour every two weeks, the lawyers said, noting that control over his contact with the outside world is justified by the risk that he will inspire others to commit violent acts.
“Specifically, this applies to contacts with far-right circles, including people who wish to establish contact with Breivik as a result of the terrorist acts of July 22, 2011,” they said in the document.
Breivik was cited as an inspiration by Brenton Tarrant, who killed 51 people at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2019.
In the latter case, the judge’s verdict (there is no jury) will be issued in the coming weeks.
Breivik was sentenced in 2012 to 21 years in detention, with a provision that allows him to remain detained indefinitely if he is still considered dangerous.
