Terrorist who killed 77 says cushy solitary confinement 'breaches human rights'

08 January 2024 , 10:03

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Anders Behring Breivik makes a Nazi salute in court in 2017 (Image: AFP/Getty Images)

The Norwegian right-wing extremist who killed 77 people in a bomb and gun rampage in 2011 is trying to sue the state for allegedly breaching his human rights over his solitary confinement.

Anders Breivik, Norway’s worst peacetime killer, claims his solitary confinement since being imprisoned in 2012 amounts to inhumane treatment under the European Convention of Human Rights. But Norway's treatment of prisoners is much more favourable than many other countries. The mass murderer is held in a two-story complex with a kitchen, dining room and TV room with an Xbox, several armchairs and black and white pictures of the Eiffel Tower on the wall. He also has a fitness room with weights, a treadmill and a rowing machine, while three parakeets fly around the complex.

But his lawyer is claiming it is impossible for Breivik, who now goes by the name Fjotolf Hansen, to have any meaningful relationships with anyone from the outside world. On July 22, 2011, Breivik killed eight people in a bomb attack in Oslo before heading to a youth camp for a centre-left political group on Utøya island, where, dressed as a police officer, he stalked and gunned down 69 people, mostly teenagers.

Anders Behring Breivik pictured during a trial in 2022 where he requested release on parole (NTB/AFP via Getty Images)

The following year, Breivik was handed the maximum 21-year sentence with a clause — rarely used in the Norwegian justice system — that he could be held indefinitely if he is still considered a danger to society. He has shown no remorse for his attacks, which he portrayed as a crusade against multiculturalism in Norway.

A similar claim during a case in 2016 was accepted but later overturned in a higher court. It was then rejected by the European Court of Human Rights. Breivik sought parole in 2022 but was judged to have shown no signs of rehabilitation. The state rejects Breivik’s claims. In a letter to the court, Andreas Hjetland, a government attorney, wrote that Breivik had so far shown himself to be unreceptive to rehabilitative work and it was "therefore difficult to imagine which major reliefs in terms of sentencing are possible and justifiable." The trial will be held Monday in the gymnasium in Ringerike prison, a stone’s throw from Utøya.

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