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Mass Killer Breivik Partly Wins Human Rights Case


A Norwegian court has ruled that mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik has been subject to prison conditions that violate his human rights.

The Oslo district court said on April 20 that the prison conditions breached an article in the European Convention on Human Rights prohibiting inhuman and degrading treatment.

But the court dismissed Breivik's claim that the government had also violated his right to a private life and a family life.

Breivik killed 77 people in 2011 by bombing central Oslo and then going on a shooting spree at the summer camp of the Labor Party's youth organization on the island of Utoya.

Breivik, 37, sued the Norwegian state and prison authorities over restrictions he faces while serving his 21-year prison sentence for the attacks.

He claimed that years of strip searches, censored mail, and isolation in prison amounted to "inhumane" treatment.

The state's attorneys had argued that the stringent prison conditions were necessary, as Breivik still poses a threat to society and visitors.

Based on reporting by AP and BBC

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