A lawsuit launched by far-right fanatic and mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik accusing the state of abusing his human rights has opened in Norway.
Breivik, who killed 77 people in a bombing and shooting rampage in 2011, appeared in a court set up in the high-security jail in which he is serving his sentence on Monday. By accusing Norway’s Ministry of Justice of breaching his human rights, he hopes to force the authorities to end his years in isolation.
The 44-year-old killer’s lawyer laid out an argument that the conditions of his detention violated his human rights.
“He has been isolated for about 12 years,” Oeystein Storrvik told the hearing. “He is only in contact with professionals, not with other inmates.”
In earlier court filings, Storrvik had argued the isolation had left Breivik suicidal and dependent on the anti-depression medication Prozac.
Breivik claims the isolation he has faced since he started serving his prison sentence in 2012 amounts to inhumane punishment under the European Convention on Human Rights. He failed in a similar attempt in 2016 -17, when his appeal was denied by the European Court of Justice.
The extremist, who distributed copies of a manifesto before his attack, is suing the state and also asking the court to lift restrictions on his correspondence with the outside world.
He killed eight people with a car bomb in Oslo then gunned down 69 others, most of them teenagers, at a Labour Party youth camp. It was Norway’s worst peacetime atrocity.
Breivik spends his time in a dedicated section of Ringerike prison, the third prison in which he has been held. His separated section includes a training room, a kitchen, a TV room and a bathroom, pictures from a visit last month by news agency NTB showed.
He is allowed to keep three budgerigars as pets and let them fly freely in the area, NTB reported.
Normally not into the state killing people, but they should just kill this fucker.
Luckily Norwegians do understand and respect their justice system better than people like you and don’t want to introduce such a shitty tool of vengeance just for one guy. Especially since that very fucker wanted Norway to get a much harsher justice system in the first place. Them granting him the same rights every other prisoner in Norway has, is winning against his ideology of hatred.
And the success of their justice system, especially when compared to countries who use death penalty and other punitive measures such as state sanctioned rape, speaks for itself. Many countries could learn a lot from Norway.
Breivik is the sort of murderer, where there is absolutely zero doubt about his guilt, where the crimes themselves are heinous, and where he should never see the outside of a jail cell ever. If Norway had voted to throw him down a mineshaft, or imprison him in a windowless cell where he was fed slops for the rest of his life I couldn’t care less.
But Norway isn’t like that and he is being treated exceptionally well by any standard for his category of offence. His pathetic narcissistic legal whining to the courts will go nowhere and he’ll stew in prison for as long as they can legally hold him. I think authorities would be relieved if he made good on his threats since it spares them the concern of what happens if he is eventually released.
Thanks for that comment. Way to many people hearing this would want Norway to change their justice system to the worse to make the life of one horrible person worse. Luckily Norwegians do understand how good their system is and don’t want to destroy it for such petty reasons like vengeance.
Cool. It is his right to do so.
Given the fairly decent conditions he’s reported to be living in, and Norway’s efforts to give him every avenue to rehabilitate, I very much doubt this case will get very far.
As always, the only winners in pointless stuff like this are the solicitors and lawyers.
I feel like the point of the lawsuit is not in good faith necessarily. He is, in a way, showing off. “I committed mass murder in the name of fascism, and my cell is nicer than your flat.” It’s a form of stochastic terror, the way I see it.
He isn’t suing because of the amenities, but because he is being socially isolated. It’s not about the quality of his cell at all.
I wouldn’t put it past him. He was very outspoken about how he wants Norway to get a harsher justice system. So him still getting the same rights as every other prisoner is him loosing.
