As noted on this blog back in 2011, Anders Breivik's sentence of 21 years comes to about 14 weeks per life taken. The lives of innocent people are pretty cheap in Norway if you only get 14 weeks for taking one.
Yet, as noted here last year, a Norway court found that even this outrageously lenient sentence was being executed inhumanely because Breivik's "three-room prison suite furnished with a treadmill, a refrigerator, a DVD player, a Sony PlayStation, a desk, a television, and a radio" was too isolated.
Today, Agence France-Presse reports:
Norwegian mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik has not been treated "inhumanely" by being held in isolation in prison, an Oslo appeals court has ruled, overturning a lower court judgment.
"Breivik is not, and has not, been subjected to torture or inhuman or degrading treatment," it said.
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"There are no clear indications that Breivik has been subjected to isolation damage during his prison sentence," the appeals court found. "The court is of the opinion that there is a high risk that Breivik will resort to violence in the future," it added.
The appeals court also upheld the lower court's ruling that Breivik's right to privacy, as guaranteed by article 8 of the convention, had not been violated. He had argued the strict controls on his correspondence with the outside world breached his rights.
The appeals court noted that Breivik remained a dangerous man who was still trying to spread his extreme rightwing ideology and build up a network of followers.
Advocacy note: The appellant making a Hitler salute at the commencement of oral argument is unlikely to predispose the court in his favor.
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