Anders Behring Breivik, the far-right fanatic who killed 77 people in bombings and shootings in Norway in 2011, will ask a court on Monday to end his isolation in prison.
The 44-year-old fanatic, who emailed copies of a manifesto outlining his theories before the attacks, says isolation in prison violates his human rights. Breivik is also suing the state in an attempt to lift restrictions on his correspondence with the outside world.
Breivik killed eight people in a car bombing in Oslo and then shot dead another 69 people, most of them teenagers, at a Labour Party youth camp, committing Norway’s worst peacetime atrocity.
He is imprisoned in a section of the high-security Ringerike prison, 70 kilometres (40 miles) northwest of Oslo, the third prison where he is being held. As a photograph taken during a visit to the prison last month by the NTB news agency showed, he has an exercise room, a kitchen, a television room and a bathroom. He can keep three parrots as pets, which fly freely around the grounds, NTB reported.
More than a decade in isolation “without meaningful interaction” has had a devastating effect, Breivik’s lawyer wrote in a statement filed with the Oslo District Court. Oeystein Storrvik added:
He is now suicidal. He is now dependent on the depression medicine Prozac to get through the days in prison.
Breivik should be kept separate from the other prisoners because he remains a security risk, according to lawyers representing the Justice Department.
Breivik is serving a 21-year sentence – the longest a Norwegian court can impose – which can be extended as long as he is deemed a threat to society.
