Mass killer Breivik sues Norway in bid to end prison isolation

By Gwladys Fouche

TYRISTRAND, Norway (Reuters) -Anders Behring Breivik, the far-right fanatic who killed 77 people in a bombing and shooting rampage in Norway in 2011, walked into court flanked by three security guards on Monday to argue his years of prison isolation had violated his rights.

Wearing a black suit, white shirt and brown tie, Breivik said nothing and made no gesture as he entered the hearing, set up in the gym of his high-security jail 70km (40 miles) northwest of Oslo.

The 44-year-old then sat impassively while his lawyer told the judge the isolation had left Breivik in a "deep depression".

"He does not wish to be alive anymore," lawyer Oeystein Storrvik said. In one incident in 2018, Breivik wrote the Norwegian words for "KILL ME" on the wall of his cell using his faeces, the lawyer added.

"He has been isolated for about 12 years ... He lives in a completely locked world," and his only contact was with professionals whose duty was to maintain their distance, Storrvik said.

Breivik is due to speak himself on Tuesday in his legal bid to lift the isolation. He 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 in Norway's worst peacetime atrocity.

His case has been a grim test for a country that is still shaken to its core by the horror of his acts but has also long taken pride in the rehabilitation efforts of its justice system.

Breivik spends his time in a dedicated section of Ringerike prison, the third prison where 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 that fly freely in the area, NTB reported.

Lawyers representing the justice ministry say Breivik must be kept apart the rest of the prison population because of the continuing security threat he poses.

"Breivik is Norway's most dangerous prisoner," lawyer Andreas Hjetland told reporters on Monday. "He is unpredictable and has killed many in serious terrorist acts ... The conditions set around him are a consequence of that."

BREIVIK SAYS HE CAN'T SPEAK TO MEDIA

The government's lawyers said in a court filing his isolation was "relative" as he has contact with guards, a priest, health professionals and, until recently, an outside volunteer that Breivik no longer wishes to see.

He also sees two inmates for an hour every other week, the lawyers said.

Control over Breivik's contacts with the outside world is justified by the risk that he will inspire others to commit violent acts, the lawyers argue.

"Specifically, this applies to contacts with far-right circles, including people who wish to establish contact with Breivik as a result of the terrorist acts on 22 July 2011," they said in a court filing.

At the end of the first break in Monday's proceedings, Breivik turned to a guard, facing the media, and said he had been told by the head of the prison not to talk to reporters.

"It is not because I don't want to, it is because I can't," he said.

Lawyers from the justice ministry are due to start laying out their case later on Monday. The judge will give a verdict in coming weeks. There is no jury.

Breivik is serving a 21-year sentence - the longest a Norwegian court can impose - which can be extended for as long as he is deemed a threat to society.

His prison is on the shore of Tyrifjorden lake, where the island of Utoeya, the site of Breivik's shooting spree, lies.

Breivik also sued the state in 2016, arguing it was breaching the European Convention on Human Rights, including sections saying no one should be subject to "torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment".

He initially won the case but that was overturned on appeal a year later before any restrictions were lifted.

(Reporting by Gwladys Fouche in Tyristrand, Norway; Editing by Sharon Singleton and Andrew Heavens)