Norwegian mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik says he is being tortured in prison because he is held in isolation and subjected to body searches. He has made a formal complaint to police about his treatment, his lawyer said.
Police will now investigate the complaints made by Breivik against Norwegian justice minister Grete Faremo and Knut Bjarkeid, director of the Ila prison on the outskirts of Oslo where he is being held.
“Breivik has made a complaint to the police of torture,” his lawyer, Tord Joret, said. “Breivik believes they are trying to make his situation in prison as unlivable and unbearable as possible so as to pressure him to commit suicide.” In July 2011, the far-right militant killed 77 people in a bombing in central Oslo and a shooting spree on a nearby island. Since then he has been held in solitary confinement inside the prison where his cell comprises of three rooms: one to sleep, a second for study and a third for exercise, each measuring about eight square metres (86sq ft).
“Breivik says he has been totally isolated from other inmates . . . that he has been subjected to degrading body inspections and that he has had no possibilities to get fresh air nor to have recreational activity,” said Mr Joret. “He is not allowed to discuss any ideology with anybody . . . He wants to explain what he did and why he did it and clear away misunderstandings but he feels he is being censored because what ever he says can be read as an incitement to violence,” he said. – (Reuters)