A hearing set to determine whether Anders Behring Breivik, the Norwegian right-wing extremist who killed 77 people in 2011, is having his human rights violated in prison has ended with neither side backing down from its original stance.
Judge Helen Andenaes Sekulic, speaking from Skien prison, south of Oslo, where Breivik is serving a 21-year sentence and the hearing was held, said on Friday she expected her ruling to be issued at the end of April at the earliest.
The hearing was the first time Breivik was seen in public since he was sentenced in August 2012 for the twin bombing and shooting attacks in 2011, which took place in Oslo and at a political youth camp organised by the Labour Party near the capital.
Breivik is "mentally vulnerable" and confused, his lawyer, Oystein Storrvik, said on Friday, expressing concern that continued isolation would harm him as he argued for restrictions to be eased.
"He sits completely alone, every single day, hour after hour with his own ideas. When he comes out, he is a national socialist leader and talks about matters people find absurd," Storrvik said.
Adele Matheson Mestad of the Office of the Attorney General rejected the claims, slamming Breivik's conduct during the four-day hearing, saying he used the case as a means to spread his views.
Breivik has sued the state for violating the European Convention of Human Rights, citing that five years of strip searches, censored mail and isolation in prison amount to "inhumane" treatment.
Mestad reminded the court how Breivik made a defiant Nazi-style salute as soon as his handcuffs were removed on Tuesday, the opening of the hearing.
Breivik used most of his testimony on Wednesday to detail his far-right ideology, Mestad added.
"This shows that Breivik has other motives than stated in his lawsuit," she said, adding he was "not a broken man".
She argued that the stringent prison conditions were necessary because Breivik still posed a threat to society and visitors.
The 37-year-old has three cells and access to an exercise area, but is denied contact with other inmates.
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