The Norwegian prison where Anders Behring Breivik may be locked up for massacring 77 people last summer is planning to recruit companions to socialise with him, its governor said yesterday.
Breivik, 33, whose trial is in its seventh week in Oslo, is considered likely to try to take a hostage to use as a bargaining chip, so he will be kept away from other inmates when he is either sent to jail or a secure psychiatric institution.
But under Norway’s strict rules against keeping anyone in isolation, the prison service must devise a plan to provide him with company, Knut Bjarkeid, the head of Ila top security jail, told the Verdens Gang (VG) daily.
Since Breivik admitted planting the bomb that killed eight people in central Oslo and carrying out the shooting spree that claimed another 69 lives, the only issue facing the judges at his trial is whether to find him criminally responsible, which will determine where he is locked up.
“Many of the measures surrounding Breivik are being created to avoid a hostage-taking, which would be the only way for him to get through all the different layers of security that have been established between him and freedom,” Mr Bjarkeid told the paper. “That makes it impossible to allow normal contact with others.”
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To avoid keeping Breivik in isolation, the high security prison northwest of Oslo could let him play sports with the guards and hire people to play chess or other pastimes with him, he said.
“We are planning a professional community around him, with employees and hired personnel,” Mr Bjarkeid added. He did not say how much the measures would cost.
Norwegian law forbids keeping prisoners in total isolation for long periods because it is considered an unduly cruel punishment.
Breivik confessed to the two attacks but refused to plead guilty, insisting that they were “cruel but necessary” to stop Norway’s “multicultural experiment” and the “Muslim invasion” of the country.
A first court-ordered psychiatric evaluation conducted last year said that he was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia and therefore not responsible for his actions. A second opinion was ordered which concluded that Breivik was sane enough to be held responsible.
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There have been reports that Norway plans to build a special psychiatric unit at a high security prison where he will be incarcerated if he is found insane at the end of his trial in July.
The court heard yesterday that Breivik took illegal stimulants to increase his physical and mental capacities on the day he launched the killing spree. An expert told the court that Breivik had taken an “ECA stack”, a combination of ephedrine (adrenaline), caffeine and aspirin, an illegal mixture in Norway.
“He was slightly to moderately under the influence of a high affecting the central nervous system,” said Professor Jørg Mørland of the Norwegian Institute of Public Health.
Breivik told the court in April that he took drugs to allow “the brain to absorb more oxygen and this results in better physical and mental performance.” Professor Mørland said that ephedrine boosted both self-confidence and the willingness to take risks.
Norwegian police said on Wednesday that they were confident that Breivik acted on his own after finding no evidence that he belonged to a Europe-wide anti-Muslim network he called the Knights Templar. He claimed he had been tasked by its leaders to write its manifesto.
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Chief investigator Kenneth Wilberg told the court: “Nothing in our investigation supports that Knights Templar exists.”