The far-right Norwegian terrorist and mass murderer Anders Breivik sends extracts of his ‘manifesto’ from prison to politicians and victims of his attacks, Norwegian media report. ‘Intimidation’, says the chairman of the victims’ association.
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Several members of the association supporting survivors of Anders Breivik’s terrorist attacks received letters from the terrorist. The youth wing of the Norwegian Socialist Party – of which Breivik shot dozens of members in 2011 during their summer camp on the island of Utøya – also received a similar letter.
In his letters, Breivik writes to the addressee with a handwritten greeting. This is usually followed by a standard open letter. In most of the letters he repeats parts of the manifesto he published before the attacks.
Last Monday, Torbjørn Vereide, parliamentary representative of the workers’ party, opened such a letter. “My stomach tightened. I found it terribly uncomfortable, to be quite honest,” Vereide told Norway’s public broadcaster NRK.
‘Intention to scare’
“It’s just absurd: someone who first tried to kill you, then sends you a letter,” the MP said in the Norwegian newspaper. Firda. “But what scares me is that while I and most others think what he writes is madness, we know there are many who support him.”
“I think he’s doing it to get us to react, so he gets attention. I experience it as intimidation myself. He wants us to know he’s there, he wants to scare us in a way, said Lisbeth Røyneland, president of the victims’ association.
“It is completely untenable that a mass murderer can send letters to his victims,” says Røyneland. She thinks that action should be taken from the prison where Breivik is in to stop the letters. “I expect them to at least make contact with those affected who are on the terrorist’s mailing list.”
Freedom of speech
“I understand that letters from convicts cause serious stress to victims of serious crime and their relatives,” said Erling Fæste, the prison director. ‘However, the law stipulates that detainees must be able to send letters, unless this can lead to new criminal offences.’ The prison will enter into a dialogue with the addressees to find out whether they want to receive the letter.
Breivik has sent and received about 3,000 letters as of 2016. His lawyer, Øystein Storrvik, believes Breivik is subject to “extremely strict conditions when it comes to communicating with the outside world.” I can’t imagine that there is a legal basis for tightening it even further.’
Vereide himself believes that freedom of expression should be respected. “Although a letter like that hurts, I know we shouldn’t get carried away. We could end up in a situation where we don’t want to end up.’ He told the Norwegian broadcaster what he did with the letter. “Shredded up, and that’s it.”
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