Norwegian right-wing extremist Anders Behring Breivik, who killed 77 people in 2011, has lost the new lawsuit he filed against the Norwegian state for inhumane treatment, according to a ruling by the Oslo court on Thursday, February 15 Verdict. Breivik, 45, who was held alone in a high-security unit for around 12 years, attacked Norway, claiming in particular that his isolation in prison violated his human rights.
During the five-day trial, which took place in early January in the gymnasium of Ringerike prison in the southeast of the country, the now 45-year-old extremist portrayed himself, sometimes tearfully, as depressed and addicted to Prozac, and accused authorities of making him “to the… Wanted to “urge suicide”.
The state, in turn, justified Breivik's strict but comfortable detention regime by citing its dangerousness and claimed that he always posed “an absolutely extreme risk of completely unbridled violence.”
“ [Anders Behring] “Breivik benefits from good material prison conditions and relatively great freedom in everyday life,” said Oslo court judge Birgitte Kolrud in her ruling. “It seems unrealistic to imagine big changes [de son régime carcéral]as the risk situation is unlikely to change significantly in the short term,” she said.
Before the verdict was announced, Breivik's lawyer told Agence France-Presse that he would appeal in the first instance in the event of a setback.
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Three pets
On July 22, 2011, Breivik 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 at a working-class youth summer camp on the island of Utoya. He was sentenced in 2012 to the maximum sentence in force in Norway at the time, namely twenty-one years in prison with the possibility of an extension as long as he continues to be considered dangerous.
In prison he has three individual rooms – a living cell, a study cell and a fitness room – on the upper floor and in the basement, which he alternately shares with another prisoner, a kitchen, a TV room, a dining room and a room for visits.
He has a flat screen, an Xbox game console and three parakeets at his disposal, which fulfill his desire for a pet. “ [Anders Behring] Breivik is being treated particularly well,” said prison director Eirik Bergstedt.
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Suicide attempts
However, his lawyer argued that the authorities had not taken sufficient measures to compensate for his isolation, since his human interactions were essentially limited to contacts with professionals (guards, lawyers, priests).
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“He will never come out, he is aware of that,” Oystein told Storrvik during the trial. “Can we say a sentence? [de facto] to be sentenced to life and to prevent any human contact during the execution of this sentence? »
According to him, the treatment of his client violates Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which prohibits “penalties or penalties.” [les] inhumane or degrading treatment.
Breivik also invoked Article 8 of the convention, which guarantees the right to correspondence, and demanded an exemption from the filtering of his mail. “ [Anders Behring] “Breivik poses the same danger today as he did on July 21, 2011,” responded Justice Ministry representative Andreas Hjetland, emphasizing that he could still commit violence or incite others to do so.
During the trial, it emerged that Breivik had committed three suicide attempts in 2018 and a campaign of disobedience: he then drew inscriptions with his excrement, including a swastika, shouted “Sieg Heil” and went on hunger strike.
However, two experts consulted came to the conclusion that the inmate was neither severely depressed nor at risk of suicide. “This does not give the impression that he had a real desire to die,” said psychologist Inni Rein, who was responsible for assessing his dangerousness, pointing to reports in which he admitted that his suicide attempts were intended to make his demands met .
In 2016, Breivik had already taken the state to court on the same grounds, partially winning his case at first instance before having it completely dismissed on appeal. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) then ruled that his complaint was “inadmissible.”
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