2 hours ago
image description,
Anders Breivik appeared at a court hearing in Ringerike Prison on Monday
Neo-Nazi Anders Brevik, who killed 77 people in Norway in 2011, has lost his case against the state that sought to end his years of isolation in prison.
Breivik had sued Norwegian authorities, claiming his conditions were “inhumane” and that he was suicidal.
But on Thursday a court ruled that Breivik's sentence “did not constitute a violation of human rights.”
Breivik's lawyer said his client was disappointed with the outcome and would appeal the latest verdict.
He has been held in solitary confinement since he killed eight people with a car bomb and shot another 69, most of them teenagers, at a summer youth camp on the island of Utoeya on July 22, 2011.
He is currently serving a 21-year prison sentence, the maximum sentence a Norwegian court can impose. However, this can be extended as long as he is considered a threat.
His lawyers claimed he had been living in a “completely closed world” and “didn't want to be alive anymore.” They had asked the court to lift restrictions on his correspondence with the outside world.
But judges at the Oslo District Court said on Thursday that the restrictions on Breivik's communications were justified because he continued to pose a danger to society.
They decided that he enjoyed “relative freedom” in the facility and had access to many services in his everyday life.
“He is studying and working on his political projects,” the verdict says.
Oeystein Storrvi, Breivik's lawyer, told Portal: “He has been in isolation for 12 years and easing his conditions is vital to his well-being in prison.”
Breivik cried during his testimony in January, claiming he was sorry for the attack and that his life had become a nightmare that had left him suicidal.
But the following day, a psychologist told the court that she did not think he was depressed and that there was a “low risk of suicide.”
Breivik, now 45, is currently spending his time in a special part of Ringerike Prison – on the banks of the lake that surrounds Utoeya.
In prison, Breivik has access to a training room, a kitchen, a TV room and a bathroom.
Many of those killed on the island were teenagers who belonged to the Norwegian Workers' Party's youth wing, theAuf. The attacks remain Norway's worst peacetime atrocity.