Norway

Mass Killer Breivik Sues Norway Over Prison Isolation

JAN 8 2024·Updated JAN 9 2024

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Image credit: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images News via Getty Images (July 25, 2011)

The Facts

Anders Breivik, the neo-Nazi mass murderer who killed 77 people in two separate attacks in Oslo and on the island of Utøya in 2011, has sued the Norwegian state on the grounds that his years-long isolation violates his human rights.
BBC News
Expected to take the stand on Tuesday, Breivik attended court on Monday but remained silent. His legal team launched a bid to end his prison isolation and lift restrictions on his correspondence with the outside world, claiming that Breivik has been suffering from "deep depression" and no longer wants to live.
Reuters
Lawyer Øystein Storrvik detailed that his client, who has been serving a 21-year jail sentence that can be extended for as long as he is deemed a threat, reportedly takes Prozac to get through his days at the Ringerike prison. His human interaction is mostly limited to contact with professionals.
France 24
Meanwhile, Norway's Justice Ministry has rejected allegations that his prison conditions breach the European Convention on Human Rights, with government lawyer Andreas Hjetland stressing that several relaxations have been made in the restrictions to which Breivik is subject.
FOX News
Breivik, also known as Fjotolf Hansen after he underwent a name change, has been held in solitary confinement in a two-story complex with a kitchen, dining room, and TV room with an Xbox and multiple armchairs, a fitness room with weights, treadmill, and rowing machine. Three parakeets also fly within the facility.
EuroNews
This isn't the first time that Breivik has sued the country on the same grounds. Though an Oslo district court ruled in his favor in 2016, declaring that his isolation violated his rights, the Norwegian state's appeal was successful in higher courts. In 2018, the European Court of Human Rights dismissed his case as "inadmissible."
Daily Mail

Sources Split

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The Spin

Narrative A

Though the claim that his near-complete isolation has taken a psychological toll on him seems to be plausible, it must be noted that Breivik has a long record of absurd complaints about his life in prison — including desiring better video games. He has been living in a luxurious prison cell despite his heinous crimes — and yet he acts as if the nation owes him everything.

Business Insider

Narrative B

Constitutional democracies must always uphold the rule of law and remain committed to protecting fundamental human rights, even if that benefits a horrific mass murder like Breivik or any other terrorist or convicted criminal. In fact, it's exactly the way that European nations treat them that indicates what kind of political community Europe wants to be.

The Conversation