Date set for Norway's appeal over Breivik ruling
The Local/NTB/AFP - [email protected]
Published: 1 Sep, 2016 CET.
Updated: Thu 1 Sep 2016 10:03 CET
The date and venue have been set for Norway's appeal against being found guilty of subjecting mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik to "inhuman" treatment by keeping him in solitary confinement.
The appeal case will take place January 10-18 and will be held in Skien Prison, the same site of Breivik’s partial victory against the state in April.
In a verdict that stunned observers, the Oslo district court found Norway guilty of violating the European Convention on Human Rights by keeping the right-wing extremist in isolation.
Breivik, who is serving a 21-year sentence for killing 77 people in a gun and bomb rampage in July 2011, has now been held apart from other inmates for more than five years.
He enjoys comfortable conditions at the Skien Prison, with three cells at his disposal equipped with two showers, as well as two televisions, an Xbox, a PlayStation, books and newspapers.
But he testified that his isolation regime was having negative effects on his health, citing headaches and concentration difficulties.
The state almost immediately appealed against the ruling. The appeal case was initially scheduled to begin on November 29 but Breivik's lawyer, Øystein Storrvik, was unavailable at that date because of a prior case commitment.
Judge Øystein Hermansen will preside over the appeal case, officials said. In August, the Court of Appeals announced that Judge Ellen Mo would be removed from the case over concerns about her impartiality.
Breivik, now a self-proclaimed Nazi, killed eight people in a bombing outside a government building in Oslo and then gunned down another 69, most of them teenagers, during a rampage at a Labour Youth camp on Utøya island on July 22, 2011.
During the lower court hearing, Breivik aired a long list of complaints about his prison conditions, ranging from cold coffee and food to his restricted contact with the outside world.
Breivik had challenged restrictions on his mail and prison visits.
Norway was found guilty of violating Article 3 of the European Convention "inhuman" and "degrading" treatment.
But the court ruled that prison authorities had not violated his right to correspondence, guaranteed by Article 8 of the convention.
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The appeal case will take place January 10-18 and will be held in Skien Prison, the same site of Breivik’s partial victory against the state in April.
In a verdict that stunned observers, the Oslo district court found Norway guilty of violating the European Convention on Human Rights by keeping the right-wing extremist in isolation.
Breivik, who is serving a 21-year sentence for killing 77 people in a gun and bomb rampage in July 2011, has now been held apart from other inmates for more than five years.
He enjoys comfortable conditions at the Skien Prison, with three cells at his disposal equipped with two showers, as well as two televisions, an Xbox, a PlayStation, books and newspapers.
But he testified that his isolation regime was having negative effects on his health, citing headaches and concentration difficulties.
The state almost immediately appealed against the ruling. The appeal case was initially scheduled to begin on November 29 but Breivik's lawyer, Øystein Storrvik, was unavailable at that date because of a prior case commitment.
Judge Øystein Hermansen will preside over the appeal case, officials said. In August, the Court of Appeals announced that Judge Ellen Mo would be removed from the case over concerns about her impartiality.
Breivik, now a self-proclaimed Nazi, killed eight people in a bombing outside a government building in Oslo and then gunned down another 69, most of them teenagers, during a rampage at a Labour Youth camp on Utøya island on July 22, 2011.
During the lower court hearing, Breivik aired a long list of complaints about his prison conditions, ranging from cold coffee and food to his restricted contact with the outside world.
Breivik had challenged restrictions on his mail and prison visits.
Norway was found guilty of violating Article 3 of the European Convention "inhuman" and "degrading" treatment.
But the court ruled that prison authorities had not violated his right to correspondence, guaranteed by Article 8 of the convention.
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