A lawsuit launched by far-right fanatic and mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik accusing the state of abusing his human rights has opened in Norway.
Breivik, who killed 77 people in a bombing and shooting rampage in 2011, appeared in a court set up in the high-security jail in which he is serving his sentence on Monday. By accusing Norway’s Ministry of Justice of breaching his human rights, he hopes to force the authorities to end his years in isolation.
The 44-year-old killer’s lawyer laid out an argument that the conditions of his detention violated his human rights.
“He has been isolated for about 12 years,” Oeystein Storrvik told the hearing. “He is only in contact with professionals, not with other inmates.”
In earlier court filings, Storrvik had argued the isolation had left Breivik suicidal and dependent on the anti-depression medication Prozac.
Breivik claims the isolation he has faced since he started serving his prison sentence in 2012 amounts to inhumane punishment under the European Convention on Human Rights. He failed in a similar attempt in 2016 -17, when his appeal was denied by the European Court of Justice.
The extremist, who distributed copies of a manifesto before his attack, is suing the state and also asking the court to lift restrictions on his correspondence with the outside world.
He killed eight people with a car bomb in Oslo then gunned down 69 others, most of them teenagers, at a Labour Party youth camp. It was Norway’s worst peacetime atrocity.
Breivik spends his time in a dedicated section of Ringerike prison, the third prison in which he has been held. His separated section includes a training room, a kitchen, a TV room and a bathroom, pictures from a visit last month by news agency NTB showed.
He is allowed to keep three budgerigars as pets and let them fly freely in the area, NTB reported.
The problem is some human has to be responsible for his suffering and that’s bad for us. Even the suffering of animals makes people depressed and suicidal. What would running the torment nexus do to a person?
EDIT Also, suffering is pointless. I think he should be forced to pay back his crimes to society, not just suffer and/or die.
Suffering isn’t pointless. It makes me and many others feel good if horrible people like Brevik suffer, its justice for the people who suffer everyday due to Breviks crimes. Governments through history have been responsible for a ton of suffering - this is one of those rare instances where it’s fully justified.
But I’ll admit, wanting revenge isn’t great and you’re right, we shouldn’t setup systems to enact revenge. That being said, some people are so terrible they need to be locked up and separated from society permanently. Since enacting a death penalty is both expensive and takes a very long time if you want to have the proper checks and balances to ensure innocent people aren’t being executed, that tells me life imprisonment is the only option for people that would or should be otherwise executed.
Maybe he changes his tune in 10 years and becomes a voice against the terrorism he tried to inspire. That could end up with an at least beneficial outcome for society.