Neo-Nazi Anders Behring Breivik, who killed 77 people in 2011, accused the Norwegian state on Tuesday of trying to “push him to commit suicide” and tearfully insisted he “remains a human being” while the authorities are still inside him see extreme danger.
• Also read: Norway: A “suicidal” Breivik sues the state to protest his isolation
“I have the impression that the government's intention is to push me to commit suicide,” he said on the second day of the new trial he launched against what he said was the state guilty of violating his rights.
“They are close to getting there. I don't think I can survive much longer without human relationships,” added this 44-year-old extremist, who testified in court and, for security reasons, moved to the gymnasium of Ringerike prison, where he is serving his sentence. .
Anders Behring Breivik, who is imprisoned alongside other prisoners, believes his almost 12-year isolation in prison violates Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which prohibits “inhuman or degrading punishment or treatment.”
For his part, public prosecutor Andreas Hjetland explained this strict but comfortable prison regime with the danger of the prisoner, who, in his opinion, always represents “an absolutely extreme risk of completely unbridled violence”.
On July 22, 2011, he first detonated a bomb near the government headquarters in Oslo, killing eight people. He then killed 69 more people, most of them teenagers, by opening fire on a Labor youth summer camp on the island of Utøya.
He was sentenced in 2012 to the maximum sentence in force in Norway at the time, namely 21 years in prison with the possibility of an extension as long as he remains considered dangerous.
During his testimony, this man, who was taking antidepressants, burst into tears.
“I understand that (…) revenge is important and that many people hate me. But I remain human,” he asserted.
He said he was distancing himself from his crimes, which he attributed to his “vulnerability” to radicalization, and said he thought about suicide “every day.”
His statement left the victims' families unmoved.
“He cries when he feels sorry for himself, but when he says he's sorry for what he did, it's cold and cynical. “I don’t believe it for a second,” Lisbeth Kristine Røyneland, the leader of a support group who lost her 18-year-old daughter on Utøya, told AFP.
Tried to hang up
During the trial, it emerged that Anders Behring Breivik had attempted suicide in prison in 2020 by hanging himself with a towel but, state officials argued, was also careful to warn guards.
He also launched a campaign of disobedience in 2018, using his excrement to make inscriptions, including a swastika, chanting “Sieg Heil,” and even observing a hunger strike.
“Breivik poses the same threat today as he did on July 21, 2011,” Mr. Hjetland countered on the eve of the double attack he had carefully prepared.
He cited several reports from psychiatrists and guards that tended to show the extremist still accepted responsibility for his crimes.
In one of these discussions, Anders Behring Breivik, asked about the killing of children on Utøya, emphasizes that right-wing extremist circles believe: “If you are old enough to be politically active, you are old enough to be the target of terrorism.”
Wide range of activities
In his prison on the shore of the lake where Utøya bathes, this neo-Nazi has several rooms on two floors that serve as a kitchen, a TV room with a games console or even an equipped gym, as well as three pet parakeets.
However, his lawyer argues that the authorities have not taken sufficient measures to compensate for his isolation, since his human interactions are essentially limited to contacts with professionals (guards, lawyers, priests).
“There is still no evidence of damage (psychological nature, editor's note) associated with the isolation or that he is suicidal,” replied another lawyer for the state, Kristoffer Nerland.
Anders Behring Breivik enjoys “a very wide range of activities” (gymnastics, visits, walks, library, video games, basketball, etc.), he said.
Citing another article of the Human Rights Convention, the extremist is also calling for a reduction in the filtering of his letters to the outside world.
In 2016, he had already taken the state to court on the same grounds and partially won his case at first instance before it was completely dismissed on appeal.