Neo-Nazi and multiple murderer Anders Behring Breivik, who killed 77 people and injured hundreds in a double attack in Oslo and on the island of Utoya on July 22, 2011, believes that the prison isolation regime in which he is serving his 21-year sentence is the verdict violates his human rights, drives him to suicide and has taken the Norwegian state to court for the second time.
With a shaved head, a dark jacket and tie, and a graying beard, Breivik appeared in the gymnasium of Ringerike prison, where the trial is taking place, with an unusually sober demeanor compared to his previous public appearances. No daring poses, no Roman greetings, no allusions to Hitler On the first of five days of trial, he will try to show that the nearly 11 and a half years of solitary confinement – he may have contact with guards, lawyers, the chaplain and sporadically with some other prisoners – violates Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which calls for “inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”.
To tell the truth, there is little humiliation in the imprisonment of the man who, in paramilitary uniform and heavily armed, first detonated a bomb near the government office in Oslo in 2011, killing eight people, and then reached the island in a dinghy. of Utoya, where the summer youth party of the then ruling Labor Party took place, where a second very serious massacre was carried out: 69 dead, most of them teenagers. It's more than a cell, it's an apartment.
A room, a kitchen, a gym, a TV room with Xbox and three budgies. Breivik, 44, engages in “a wide range of activities” such as cooking, gaming, walking and playing basketball, and “there is no evidence that he suffers from any physical or mental problems as a result of his prison conditions,” attorney writes to the State Andreas Hjetland in court documents. Furthermore, “Breivik has so far shown little interest in rehabilitation measures” and “it is therefore difficult to imagine what significant improvements to his prison conditions are possible and justified in the short term.”
For the Norwegian state, Breivik's isolation is relative and justified given the danger he poses. His conditions of detention are designed to protect society, other prisoners and prison officials, and himself, given the risks posed by other prisoners.
His lawyer Oystein Storrvik disagrees. “The main damage associated with Breivik's isolation is that he no longer has the will to live. You can call it depression,” lawyer Oystein Storrvik said in court, also calling for his letter-writing restrictions to be relaxed.
Breivik was sentenced to 21 years in prison, which can be extended as long as he is considered a threat. “He will never get out of there, he is aware of that,” the lawyer continued to tell the judges.
In the past, the killer has used his public appearances as a platform to spread his political ideology and provocations, causing new pain to the victims' families. Therefore, the court in Oslo has banned the media from broadcasting Breivik's statement, which is scheduled for tomorrow.
The multiple murder neo-Nazi had already sued the Norwegian state in 2016 for the same reasons. And the Oslo court surprised the world by ruling that the isolation was a violation of his rights. The verdict was overturned on appeal and upheld in 2018 by the European Court of Human Rights, which dismissed the case as “inadmissible.” In 2022, ten years after the bloodiest massacre in Norway since World War II, he also applied for parole. Rejected because of the “obvious risk that he would repeat the behavior that led to the terrorist attacks of July 22, 2011.”
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