Convicted mass assassin Anders Behring Breivik spends his days in a spacious three-room cell, taking part in video video games, exercising, watching TV and taking university-level programs in arithmetic and enterprise.
Midway via a 21-year sentence and in search of early launch, Breivik, 42, is being handled in a manner which may appear stunning to folks outdoors of Norway, the place he killed eight in an Oslo bombing in 2011, after which stalked and gunned down 69 folks, largely teenagers, at a summer season camp.
However right here — regardless of how depraved the crime — convicts profit from a felony justice system that's designed to supply prisoners a few of the comforts and alternatives of life on the surface.
Nonetheless, Breivik’s excessive case is testing the bounds of Norway’s dedication to tolerance and rehabilitation.
“We've got by no means had anybody in Norway who has been accountable for this degree of violence earlier than. And there was debate right here about whether or not a part of the justice system ought to be modified for somebody like him,” mentioned Erik Kursetgjerde, who survived the slaughter on Utoya island as an 18-year-old. Nonetheless, he advises a gradual method that doesn't bend to Breivik’s want to subvert the system.
Throughout a three-day parole listening to this week that was broadcast to journalists, Breivik renounced violence, but additionally flashed a Nazi salute and espoused white supremacy, echoing concepts in a manifesto he launched on the time of his killing spree. The outburst was acquainted to Norwegians who had watched him ship rambling diatribes throughout his partially televised felony trial.
“Clearly this has been extraordinarily making an attempt for survivors, the bereaved and Norwegian society as a complete,” mentioned Kristin Bergtora Sandvik, professor of legislation on the College of Oslo, including that there's debate in Norway over whether or not parole rules ought to be overhauled in a bid to stop any such grandstanding.
In 2016, Breivik efficiently sued the Norwegian authorities for human rights abuses, complaining about his isolation from different prisoners, frequent strip searches and the truth that he was usually handcuffed in the course of the early a part of his incarceration. He additionally complained in regards to the high quality of the jail meals, having to eat with plastic utensils and never having the ability to talk with sympathizers.
Whereas Breivik’s human rights case was in the end overturned by a better court docket, the episode confirmed simply how far the Norwegian felony justice system might bend in favor of prisoners’ rights and residing circumstances.
“His circumstances, in line with Norwegian requirements, are wonderful,” mentioned his jail psychiatrist, Randi Rosenqvist. She testified on the parole listening to that Breivik continues to be a public menace.
Even after Breivik’s outbursts at this week’s parole listening to, Norwegian authorities present no signal of wavering from treating him like another inmate at Skien jail.
“In a Nordic jail sentence, the principle punishment is deprivation of liberty. All of the Nordic nations have methods primarily based on a lenient and humane felony coverage that begins from the mutual understanding that punishment shouldn't be any stricter than mandatory,” mentioned professor Johan Boucht from the College of Oslo Division of Public and Worldwide legislation, who has additionally labored in Sweden and Finland. “The second side is rehabilitation, and the precept that it's higher in the long term to rehabilitate the inmate than create a manufacturing unit for criminals.”
Up till about 50 years in the past, Norway’s justice system targeted on punishment. However within the late Nineteen Sixties there was a backlash to the tough circumstances of prisons, resulting in felony justice reforms that emphasised kinder remedy and rehabilitation.
Norwegian sentencing and jail circumstances are sharply at odds with different European nations equivalent to France, the place the worst criminals can face life imprisonment, with the potential of an attraction solely after 22 years.
Comparatively few French defendants get the longest sentence, however amongst these dealing with it are Salah Abdeslam, who's the one surviving member of the Islamic State cell that attacked Paris in November 2015. Abdeslam has complained bitterly about his circumstances within the Fleury-Mérogis jail, the place he's beneath 24-hour surveillance in solitary confinement, the furnishings is fastened to the ground of his tiny cell and he can train for only one hour each day.
Breivik’s comparatively lenient remedy inside jail doesn't imply he’ll get out anytime quickly, and even in 2032, when his sentence ends.
Whereas the utmost jail sentence in Norway is 21 years, the legislation was amended in 2002 in order that, in uncommon circumstances, sentences will be prolonged indefinitely in five-year increments if somebody continues to be thought of a hazard to the general public.
Breivik’s lawyer, Øystein Storrvik, mentioned in his closing arguments on the parole listening to that Breivik ought to be launched to show that he's reformed and not a menace to society, and that's not doable to show whereas he's in complete isolation.
However Breivik’s habits throughout this week’s parole listening to was proof sufficient to some that he ought to by no means once more see freedom.
Kristine Roeyneland, who leads a bunch for households of Breivik’s victims and survivors, mentioned his comfy jail circumstances and talent to unfold extremist views via publicized parole hearings are reprehensible.
Regardless of the end result of Breivik’s request for early parole, which might be determined by a three-judge panel in coming weeks, some take an enlightened view of the Norwegian authorities’s obvious dedication to deal with him like another prisoner.
“Folks is perhaps afraid that he’s utilizing the legislation as a stage,” mentioned Sandvik, the legislation professor. “However you can even say that, you understand, he's being utilized by the legislation. He’s a megaphone for the rule of legislation.”
Related Press reporter Lori Hinnant in Paris, France, contributed to this report.
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