Mass murderer Breivik wins lawsuit over 'inhuman' treatment

Norwegian mass murderer and self-proclaimed Nazi Anders Behring Breivik on Wednesday won his lawsuit against the state over his "inhuman" solitary confinement in prison. The ruling was greeted with surprise by the state's lawyer and some of the survivors of Breivik's bomb and gun rampage in 2011 that killed 77 people.
"The prohibition of inhuman and degrading treatment represents a fundamental value in a democratic society," the Oslo district court said in its decision issued after hearing the case in March. "This applies no matter what, (even) in the treatment of terrorists and killers," it said. "The court... has concluded that the prison conditions constitute inhuman treatment."
Norway's most notorious inmate has been detained in a high-security prison unit and held apart from other inmates since the massacre, the worst peacetime atrocity in the country. The court said Breivik's almost five-year isolation violated Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Judge Helen Andenaes Sekulic ruled however that prison authorities had not violated his right to correspondence, guaranteed by Article 8 of the convention, by strictly controlling his communication with the outside world.
The 37-year-old, who testified in March that he was now a Nazi who had renounced violence, had asked for the restrictions on his correspondence and visits to be lifted so he could communicate with his supporters. The state had argued the restrictions were necessary because he was "extremely dangerous", and were intended to prevent his supporters from carrying out future attacks. Wednesday's verdict means Norwegian prison authorities could be required to ease some of his conditions, although they did not immediately comment.
Breivik is serving a maximum 21-year sentence - which can be extended if he is still considered dangerous - for killing eight people in a bombing outside a government building in Oslo and then shooting dead another 69, mostly teenagers, at a Labour Youth camp on the island of Utoya on July 22, 2011.