Anders Breivik makes Nazi salute in Norway as he begins human rights lawsuit
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Mass killer Anders Behring
Breivik claimed in court on Tuesday that Norway was
violating his human rights by keeping him in isolation for
murdering 77 people in 2011, but irritated the judge with a
Nazi salute at the start of proceedings.
Clean-shaven and wearing a black suit, white shirt and
golden tie, Breivik raised his right arm in a flat-handed Nazi-
style salute on arrival at the court, slightly different from the
outstretched arm and clenched fist he used in 2012.
His lawyer said Breivik considers himself a national
socialist, or Nazi, and that the gesture was "the worst thing
you can do in a courtroom". Breivik later suggested it was
an old Norse gesture, he said.
Judge Helen Andenaes Sekulic was not pleased either way.
She told Breivik not to repeat the salute when court
proceedings resume on Wednesday.
in 2012, Breivik is claiming inhuman treatment by Norway,
where he is serving 21 years for killing eight people with a
bomb in Oslo and gunning down 69 others on an island
nearby, many of them teenagers.
He has had just one visitor with whom he had physical
contact - his mother, who was allowed into prison and gave
him a hug shortly before she died of cancer in 2013.
Breivik's lawyer, Oeystein Storrvik, accused Norway of
violating a ban on "inhuman and degrading treatment" under
the European Convention on Human Rights by keeping the
37-year-old isolated from other inmates in a special three-
room cell.
"There is no tradition in Norway for this type of isolation," he
told the special court that will meet until Friday in a
gymnasium at Skien jail about 100 km (60 miles) south of
Oslo.
Norway rejects the charges of inhuman treatment.
"Breivik is a very dangerous man," said Marius Emberland,
the lawyer representing the state, defending Breivik's
conditions.
He said Breivik had been given some opportunities for
interaction with others, including meeting volunteers to play
chess, but that he had declined.
Another prisoner tried to attack Breivik last year, getting to
within earshot. When stopped by guards, the man shouted:
"You are a killer, a child killer ... And I love my country,"
Emberland said.
Storrvik told Reuters he had advised Breivik against making
the salute. "He (Breivik) says he is a national socialist," he
said.
"FULL-BLOODED NAZI"
Oeystein Soerensen, a professor of history at Oslo
University, said Breivik seemed to want to signal to like-
minded fanatics "that he is now a full-blooded Nazi. He
wasn't that in 2011."
In 2011, for instance, a rambling manifesto written by
Breivik expressed sympathy for Israel, seeing it as an ally in
his hostility to Muslims. And Breivik's previous clenched fist
was "a sort of home-made fascist salute," he said.
Opinions are divided among the survivors and relatives of
victims who have spoken out publicly. Some have said the
lawsuit is a joke and do not want to be reminded of July 22,
2011, while one survivor said Breivik's human rights should
be respected.
"Breivik made us inhuman as victims of his actions and
we're in danger of falling into the same trap as him if we
take away his human rights," survivor Bjoern Ihler told
Reuters in Oslo, at a court where the case was televised.
Breivik killed eight people with a bomb in Oslo and gunned
down 69 others on an island nearby, many of them
teenagers. He is serving Norway's maximum sentence of
21 years, which can be extended.
Breivik will have a chance to speak on Wednesday. The
single judge - there is no jury - will issue a ruling in coming
weeks. Storrvik says he may eventually appeal to the
European Court of Human Rights if Breivik loses.
Norway considered it too dangerous to hear the case in
Oslo. The makeshift courtroom has walls lined with timber
bars and a climbing frame as well as two basketball hoops.
Source :Reuters
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