Breivik makes Nazi salute as court reviews ‘inhumane’ prison regime

SKIEN, Norway: Norwegian mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik made a Nazi salute at the opening of an appeal case on his prison conditions on Tuesday, repeating the provocative gesture he made in a lower court hearing.

The extended arm gesture, sure to offend families of the 77 people he killed in 2011, earned Breivik a reprimand from Judge Oystein Hermansen, who described it as “offensive to the dignity of the court”.

Wearing a dark suit, with a shaved head and thick beard, Breivik, 37, agreed not to repeat the salute.

The appeals court is examining Breivik’s case after a lower court in Oslo ruled in April that his rights had been violated and he was subjected to ‘inhumane’ and ‘degrading’ treatment in prison, in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights.

The legal defeat stunned the Norwegian state, which has prided itself on respecting the rule of law after the bloodiest attack on its soil since the end of World War II.

In prison, Breivik has a threecell complex where he can play video games and watch television on two sets.

He also has a computer without internet access, gym machines, books and newspapers.

In July 2011, Breivik gunned down 69 people, most of them teenagers, at a Labour Party youth camp on the island of Utoya, shortly after he killed eight people in a bombing outside a government building in Oslo.

The right-wing extremist said he killed his victims because they valued multiculturalism.

Victims’ families have largely remained silent ahead of the appeals case and none of their representatives were present for Tuesday’s three-hour hearing.

But one survivor spoke out on Twitter to complain that media coverage of the court case gives Breivik the attention he craves. — AFP