Norwegian killer Anders Breivik begins parole hearing with Nazi salute

Norwegian mass killer Anders Breivik gave a Nazi salute as he entered court seeking to be released on parole.

The far-right extremist has served the minimum 10 years of the 20-year sentence he was given for his twin terrorist attacks in 2011, which left 77 dead.

This means he is eligible for parole, so long as he can show he is no longer a danger to society.

Breivik, 42, made a white supremacist gesture with his fingers before raising his right arm in a Nazi salute as he entered the court.

He also carried signs containing white supremacist messages such as “stop your genocide against our white nations” and “Nazi-Civil-War”.

He was later ordered to stop displaying the signs. “I don’t want to see anything of the kind when the prosecution speaks,” Judge Dag Bjoervik said.

Breivik has called Par Oberg, a prominent Swedish neo-Nazi, to testify for him in the hearing.

Oberg, from the neo-Nazi Nordic Resistance Movement, was last year found guilty of committing hate crimes, after he was recorded on film chanting the Nazi slogan “Sieg Heil!” at a political festival in 2017.

The hearing, being held in a gymnasium at Skien prison to the south-west of Oslo under the auspices of Telemark district court, is expected to last three days.

In 2012 Breivik was handed the maximum 21-year sentence with a clause — rarely used in the Norwegian justice system — that he can be held indefinitely if he is still considered a danger to society.

“According to Norwegian law he has a right now to go before a judge,” said Øystein Storrvik, Breivik’s defense lawyer. “He emphasizes that right. And his motivation for doing so is difficult for me to have an opinion on.”

Breivik has form for grandstanding to try to further his extremist goals.

During his 2012 trial, he entered the courtroom daily flashing a closed fist salute, and telling grieving parents that he wished he had killed more.

He has tried to form a fascist party in prison and reached out by mail to right-wing extremists in Europe and the United States.

Prison officials seized many of those letters, fearing Breivik would inspire others to commit violent attacks.

In 2016, he sued the government, saying his isolation from other prisoners, frequent strip searches and the fact that he was often handcuffed during the early part of his incarceration violated his human rights.

He made a Nazi salute toward journalists during the case which he initially won, but was overturned by higher courts in 2017.