He expressed no remorse, however, for the massacre during a court hearing at which the state is appealing against a lower court ruling in 2015 that the tough conditions violate Breivik’s human rights.
Breivik, who gave a Nazi-style salute at the start of the week-long court hearing on Tuesday, traced his feelings to a lack of critical feedback about his ideas while in jail.
« The last five years I’ve been completely isolated, not corrected a single time. I’ve sat in a cell 23 hours a day for almost six years; I’ve become stranger and stranger as a direct consequence of this, » he said.
« I’ve become a lot more radical while I’ve been jailed, » he said, adding that he was « shocked by many of the things I have written ».
Despite the Nazi salute, Breivik said that his underlying commitment was now to democracy and peaceful means.
On July 22 2011 Breivik killed eight people with a car bomb outside the prime minister’s office in Oslo and then shot 69 others on an island near the capital, many of them teenagers attending a youth camp of Norway’s then-ruling Labour Party.
Attorney-general Fredrik Sejersted told the court yesterday that Breivik had to be kept away from other prisoners because he was still dangerous and wanted to spread a neo-Nazi ideology from inside the jail.
He is compensated with a three-room cell, including a personal gym, television, newspapers and PlayStation.
Breivik’s lawyer, Oeystein Storrvik, said his client’s treatment, including strip searches and use of handcuffs, violates a ban on « inhuman and degrading treatment » under the European Convention on Human Rights.
Breivik was more subdued than in the previous court appearance in 2015 when he joked about suffering ready-made meals and cold coffee.
