A Norwegian court said on Wednesday mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik will not be
released early from jail, denying a request by the man who killed 77 people in the Nordic country’s worst peacetime atrocity, news agency NTB reported, citing the ruling.
Breivik’s lawyer and the court were not immediately available for comment.
On July 22, 2011, the anti-Muslim neo-Nazi killed eight with a car bomb in Oslo and then gunned down 69, most of them teenagers, at a Labour Party youth camp on Utoeya island.
The lawyer told NTB that Breivik would appeal the decision. The court heard Breivik’s petition for parole, his second,in November. During that hearing, he said the attacks had been “necessary”.
The 45-year-old has served 13 years of a 21-year sentence, the maximum penalty at the time of his crimes, which can be extended for as long as he is deemed a threat to society. He can apply for parole a year after each rejection.
His lawyers say he’s been isolated in the prison for 12 years and has no contact with other inmates. They said his isolation had left him suicidal and dependent on the anti-depressant Prozac.
The Justice Ministry says the isolation is relative since he has contacts with guards, a priest and health professionals. Contacts with the outside world are limited given the concern he may inspire others to commit violent acts.
A case in point is Bernton Tarrant, who killed 51 people in two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand in 2019.
In the section of the prison where he lives, Brevik has a training room, a kitchen, a TV room and a bathroom. He is allowed to keep three parakeets as pets.
“Brevik has much more space than any other inmate at Ringerike Prison,” the jail director had told the Norwegian News Agency NTB. He is even allowed an XBOX.
With Reuters inputs
