Teacher of student killed by Breivik relieved mass killer won human rights case

A teacher whose student was killed by Anders Behring Breivik is "relieved" that a Norwegian court found that the killer's human rights were violated in prison.

I for one would see it as a great day if he was let out again.-  Mads Andenas

"It was a relief," says Mads Andenas, whose grade school student was killed by Breivik. His niece also survived the attacks on Utoya Island which killed 77 people in 2011.

The Oslo district court said Breivik's prison conditions breached an article in the European Convention on Human Rights prohibiting inhuman and degrading treatment.

"He's going to spend most of the rest of his life in prison … to treat someone in a way that we find to be a violation of human rights and international law is of no satisfaction to me," he tells As It Happens host Carol Off.

Breivik sued the government, saying his isolation from other prisoners, frequent strip searches and frequent use of handcuffs while moving between his three cells was a violation of his human rights.

"He has been under an extreme regime of isolation," says  Andenas. "The court held that it was not appropriate—the authorities had not justified the extreme isolation he's under."

Breivik is the only prisoner in his wing of Skien prison, that has been compared to a dormitory. His cell has a TV and a computer but no internet access. The only visitor allowed to have physical contact with him is reportedly his mother. The rest of his visits, mainly with professionals, are done through a glass partition.

On July 22, 2011, Breivik set off a car bomb outside the government headquarters in Oslo, killing eight people and wounding many more.

He then drove to Utoya island, where he opened fire on the annual summer camp of the left-wing Labor Party's youth wing. Sixty-nine people were killed, most of them teenagers, before Breivik surrendered to police.

In a letter to authorities, Breivik complained that his coffee was cold, his cell was poorly decorated, he had no view and he didn't have enough butter for his bread.

His lawyer said his treatment was worse than the death penalty, which is outlawed in Norway.

Andenas says his position is shared by many in Norway, "There's nobody that doesn't want the court's decision to be respected."

Andenas hopes that Breivik can be rehabilitated back into society.

"I for one would see it as a great day if he was let out again. That's something that has to take place within the confines of a legal process."

With files from CP