Inside the prison where mass murderer Anders Breivik is kept as he sues Norway in bid to end isolation
9 January 2024, 01:42 | Updated: 9 January 2024, 02:06
Mass murderer Anders Breivik, who killed 77 people in Norway in 2011, is suing the Norwegian government in a bid to end his solitary confinement.
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Breivik, 44, has claimed that his isolation from the general population of Norway's high-security Ringerike jail has left him in "deep depression".
He was behind a bombing and shooting rampage that targeted mostly teenagers - marking Norway's worst peacetime atrocity.
The 44-year-old lives in a dedicated section of the prison, which includes a kitchen fitted with a washing machine, microwave, stainless steel worktops, cupboards and even a dishwasher.
There is also a gym, featuring expensive fitness equipment, including a treadmill, leg press and a rowing machine.
Images from the prison also showed a living space with a large flat-screen TV, leather seats, coffee table with candles placed on top, radiator and two large windows with a view.
It even features decorative art on the walls, including a black-and-white image of the Eiffel Tower.
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Breivik is also allowed to keep three colourful budgies as pets, according to news agency NTB.
Footage from the prison showed a library filled with books, an indoor garden area filled with snow, a basketball court, and a dining room.
In 2011, Breivik killed eight people with a car bomb in Oslo and shot dead 69 people, with links to the Norwegian Labour Party's youth wing, at a summer youth camp on the island of Utoeya - he is now incarcerated in a prison located on the shores of the lake that surrounds the same island.
The killer, who was given a maximum sentence of 21 years, has demanded that the Norwegian government allow him to have correspondence with the world outside of prison walls.
His lawyer, Oeystein Storrvik, told a court hearing on Monday: "He has been isolated for about 12 years... He lives in a completely locked world.”
He added: "He does not wish to be alive anymore.”
Lawyers for the justice ministry argued that Breivik’s prison isolation is "relative" as he has contact with guards, a priest, health professionals, as well as two inmates for an hour every other weekend, and a volunteer who Breivik has recently refused to see.
Lawyer Andreas Hjetland said that Breivik is “still proud of what he has done. He still holds the same ideological views”.
A judge is expected to deliver a verdict in the coming weeks without a jury.
