Breivik attempts to start 'fascist' party from prison

OSLO - Agence France-Presse

In August 2012, Breivik was sentenced to 21 years in prison. AFP Photo

Anders Behring Breivik, who murdered 77 people in Norway in 2011, says he wants to establish a "fascist" party from prison, claiming this could prevent a repeat of his massacre.
      
In a 34-page letter, received Friday by AFP, the right wing extremist issued an "ultimatum" to the Norwegian justice ministry, demanding the removal of what he described as barriers to the creation of the "Norwegian Fascist Party" (NFP) and the "Nordic League" (NL).
      
On July 22, 2011, Breivik, now aged 35, killed 77 people, claiming that he was fighting against multiculturalism and a "Muslim invasion".        

He began by detonating a bomb near government buildings in Oslo, killing eight people, and later opened fire on a Labour Party youth camp on the island of Utoeya, taking 69 lives, most of them teenagers.        

Breivik claimed to have "converted" to democracy since being sentenced to prison in August 2012 and said he wanted to establish a political party to promote his ideology by non-violent means.        

He added that he had been inspired by the electoral success of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party in Greece.
      
"As a former militant, my heart weeps for the barbarism that I perpetrated on July 22," he wrote from prison where he is serving a 21-year sentence, which may be extended.        

"As a former militant, the most important thing in my life is to work towards preventing something like this from ever happening again. The whole intention of the NFP and the NL is that this does not happen again," he wrote, signing the letter "Anders Behring Breivik, party secretary and parliamentary candidate for the NFP and the NL".
      
All prisoners in Norway maintain their civic rights regardless of the severity of their sentence.
      
However Breivik claims that in practise the prison authorities have restricted his rights and confiscated letters he needed to gather signatures to register his political parties.        

The prison authorities deny the allegation, replying that they have legitimately censored letters which could incite criminal acts.        
"This is absolutely not a deliberate attempt to delay things in order to prevent him from creating a party," Karl Hillesland, acting director of Skien prison told AFP.         

"But we have a regulatory framework that we try our best to implement."