Anders Breivik in court gives the Nazi salute: he is awaiting parole

Anders Behring Breivik, the far-right killer responsible for the 2011 Oslo and Utoya massacre in which he killed 77 people, appeared in court several times giving the Nazi salute and with a white supremacist message both on his dark suit jacket and in a placard held in hand at today’s hearing in which, after 10 years behind bars, he asks for parole. Breivik, 42, has presented himself as the leader of a Norwegian neo-Nazi movement, suggesting that he will use the hearing as an opportunity to express his white supremacist views rather than as a serious attempt to get an early exit from a 21-year sentence. prison. Exactly what survivors and relatives of the victims feared. The hearing before the Telemark District Court in southern Norway is held in a gymnasium in Skien prison, 100 kilometers southwest of Oslo, where Breivik is being held. He always remained isolated from the other inmates. The court will have to consider whether Breivik is still so dangerous that the company needs extra protection against him thus keeping him in detention. The hearing is expected to last three days, but it will take several weeks before the sentence is announced. Experts say he is unlikely to be granted an early release.
In 2012, Breivik was imposed a maximum sentence of 21 years with a clause, rarely used in the Norwegian judicial system, namely that he can be held indefinitely if still considered a danger to society. This is the clause that implies that Brevik can request a probation hearing after 10 years, which it is doing today. On the one hand, the clause probably implies a life sentence, but on the other it also opens the possibility that Breivik can request annual parole hearings in which he can convey his views, Berit Johnsen, a research professor at the University, warned yesterday. College of Norwegian Correctional Service.
It was July 22, 2011 when, after months of meticulous preparations, Breivik detonated a car bomb in front of the Oslo government headquarters, killing eight people and injuring dozens. Then he drove to the island of Utoya, where he opened fire on the annual summer camp of the Labor Party’s youth wing: 69 people were killed, most of them teenagers, before Breivik surrendered to the police. In 2012 he was convicted and the court defined him as capable of understanding and willing, rejecting the prosecutor’s thesis that he was psychotic; Breivik did not appeal. During the 2012 trial he entered the courtroom every day saluting with a clenched fist and telling the parents of the victims that he wanted to kill more people.
“I can say I see no major changes in how Breivik works” from his criminal trial, when he bragged about the scale of his massacre, to the 2016 lawsuit he filed against the government accusing him of violating his human rights, when he raised his hand in a Nazi salute, says Randi Rosenqvist, the psychiatrist who followed Breivik since his incarceration in 2012. “In principle and in practice, anyone seeking parole should show remorse and show that they understand why such acts cannot be repeated,” he said. continued. Rosenqvist will provide evidence at the hearing and submit the psychiatric report, which is usually crucial if criminals want to prove they are no longer dangerous.