The Norwegian terrorist who murdered 77 people entered the debate on early release – and saluted with a show of hands
Eleven years after carrying out the worst terrorist attack in the country, Anders Bering Breivik presented Nazi symbols and sought to end his sentence: “Today I renounce violence and terrorism”
Norwegian terrorist Anders Bering Breivik, who murdered 77 people more than ten years ago, made a Nazi salute and displayed a white power symbol at a court hearing, while seeking early release from prison on the grounds that he had undergone “brainwashing” before carrying out the brutal attack.
Anders Bering Breivik in early release hearing (Photo: Getty Images)
Remember, Breivik, far right, killed 77 people in Norway – mostly teenagers – during a car bomb attack and a shocking shooting attack in Oslo and a Labor Party youth camp on July 22, 2011. Breivik’s attack is the worst attack the country has seen since World War II.
On Tuesday he arrived at Telemark District Court to hear his request for early release, wearing a black suit and a shaved head, and as he entered the courtroom he saluted and performed the symbol of white power (a Nazi expression representing white supremacy). He also held signs that read, “Stop the genocide against our white nations,” and “The Nazi Civil War.”
When presenting the signs, the judge told Breivik to put them aside: “I do not want to see things like this when the plaintiff speaks.”
During the hearing, he justified his activities by claiming that “they brainwashed me. The order was … to re-establish the Third Reich. And how to do that, depended on each soldier individually.”
(Photo: Reuters)
In his speech to the judge, which lasted more than an hour, Breivik insisted that he no longer posed a threat to society, and should now be released after serving 10 years in prison. “Today I completely renounce violence and terrorism. I hereby give you my stuff of honor, that it is behind me forever,” he said.
He blamed his killing spree on online radicalization by an extremist right-wing system that motivated him to do so. Breivik sounded that he would continue to support ideologies of white supremacy and Nazi ideologies, but said he would not act by violent means.
Breivik, whose application for early release was rejected last year, offered to live in a non-Western country or in the Arctic, if he gets a conditional release.
Breivik, who legally changed his name to Piottlof Hansen, is serving a maximum term of imprisonment under Norwegian law of 21 years. However, the sentence can be extended indefinitely, as long as it is considered a danger to society.
Anders Bering Breivik, 2012 (Photo: Reuters)
Prosecutor Hulda Carlsdottir told Reuters that “our position is that continued detention is needed to protect the company. The main issue here is the bush involved in his release.”
Relatives of the victims of the heinous attack feared the hearing would provide Breivik with a public platform to further expose his extremist views, while experts said he was unlikely to get an early release.
“The only thing I’m afraid of is if he’s given the opportunity to speak freely and pass on his extremist views to people who have the same mindset,” said Lisbeth Christine Rhineland, who runs the support group for families and survivors.
In 2016, a hearing was held on a request to improve Breivik’s incarceration conditions – and as he entered the hall he saluted with a clenched fist, presenting himself as a crusader trying to protect Norway and Europe from Muslim immigration.
Four years earlier, he had been convicted of murder and terrorism and found criminally insane, rejecting prosecutors’ views that he was having a psychotic attack at the time.
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