Right-wing extremist Anders Behring Breivik, author of a double massacre which left 77 dead in Norway in 2011, requested new parole on Tuesday, most likely doomed to failure. Under Norwegian law, Breivik, 45, is allowed to apply for early parole once a year, after serving ten years of his sentence.
His first request for conditional release, in January 2022, was rejected, the court having concluded that there was a “clear risk” that he would return to the behavior which had led to the attacks of July 22, 2011. “He requests release conditional, but it is unlikely,” his lawyer Oystein Storrvik admitted to AFP, before the opening of the three-day hearing on Tuesday.
“Absolutely extreme risk”
Breivik is expected to address the court himself during the hearing, which is being held in the Ringerike prison gymnasium for security reasons. The neo-Nazi killer has used his previous court appearances to express his extremist views. “We want the court to take his improvement into account, he has the right to evolve and have better living conditions to have a future,” said Oystein Storrvik.
Breivik was sentenced in 2012 to 21 years in prison, the harshest sentence possible at the time in Norway, which can be extended as long as he is considered a threat to society. He has been held separately from other prisoners in high-security facilities for more than 12 years. In February 2024, he lost a lawsuit against the Norwegian state for inhumane treatment. The state argued that its strict — but comfortable — conditions were justified, saying it still presented an “absolutely extreme risk of completely unbridled violence.”
The prosecution's point of view 'has not changed'
On July 22, 2011, Breivik first detonated a bomb near the government headquarters in Oslo, killing eight people, then killed 69 other people, most of them teenagers, by opening fire in a summer camp in Oslo. Labor Youth on the island of Utøya. He said he killed his victims because they adhered to multiculturalism.
His lawyer said psychologists had conducted a thorough assessment of Breivik, for the first time in 12 years, and would present their 109-page report to the court.
Oystein Storrvik refused to divulge the findings, saying only: “I think it can be useful for us.” Prosecutor Hulda Olsen Karlsdottir told the NTB news agency that the report had not changed her opinion. “The new assessment has not changed the prosecution's view on the issue of his release,” she said. During hearings earlier this year, Breivik said he was depressed. The date for the court's decision has not yet been set.
