The Norwegian prosecutor declared last week that the ultra-right terrorist Anders Behring Breivik, who murdered 77 people in 2011, remains “quite a dangerous person”. The prosecutor argued that he is not, therefore, an appropriate candidate for conditional release after 10 years in prison, which he has applied for in accordance with the law in Norway.
The three-day hearing about the request ended on 20 January and the verdict is expected by the close of this month, the Associated Press (AP) has reported. Prosecutor Hulda Karlsdottir said the assassin had “displayed no genuine regret” to the court and that his behavior there had just been a component of a “PR trick”.
The prosecutor argued that Breivik’s request should be rejected by the court. Breivik told the court he has renounced violence, but on the first day of the hearing he gave the Nazi salute and openly espoused extremist opinions about the alleged “superiority of the White race”.
Psychiatrist Randi Rosenqvist, who has repeatedly examined the assassin, told the court on 19 January that Breivik is just as dangerous now as he was 10 years ago. If he were to be released, the physician believes an immediate threat would exist of his committing serious crimes once more.
The attorney for Breivik, Öystein Storrvik, said in his concluding remarks that Breivik should be released in order to prove he has rectified himself and no longer presents a threat to society. The attorney said it is impossible to demonstrate that fact while the convict is in total isolation from others.
Storrvik also alleged it to be a fact (one that he also called a paradox) that “a person in prison is treated so badly that he never gets better. He never gets out.”
At the end of July 2011, Breivik set off a bomb in the Government quarter of Oslo that cost eight people their lives. Shortly thereafter he shot dead 69 members of a Social Democratic Youth summer camp on the nearby island of Utöya.
One year later, the court sent him to prison for 21 years for terrorism, the highest one-time punishment that it is possible to hand down in Norway. It is possible, in Brevik’s case, to extend the sentence indefinitely for the rest of his life.
