OSLO – Norwegian jailed mass killer Anders Behring Breivik has had his application to study political science at the University of Oslo rejected, the institution said Tuesday.
Breivik, a right-wing extremist who is serving a 21-year prison term for killing 77 people, published a 1,500-page manifesto moments before his 2011 murderous spree. The 34-year-old killer’s application had reportedly caused concern among faculty staff, with some refusing to teach him.
But the university said he lacked the qualifications to take the course. “The conclusion is that he isn’t considered sufficiently qualified to start a course in political science,” the rector of the university, Ole Petter Ottersen, said.
On July 22, 2011, Breivik killed 77 people, mostly youths, by planting a bomb outside Oslo’s main government building and later opening fire on the Labor Party’s youth camp on the island of Utoya.
He has repeatedly said he would continue his ideological struggle against a multicultural society after the attacks. In his lengthy thesislike manifesto quoting hundreds of authors and academics, Breivik denounced multiculturalism as Europe’s doom and calls for a crusade “to repel . . . an ongoing Islamic invasion.”
Security regulations meant he would have been banned from entering campus and would have had to take the course as a distance-learning student.
Norwegian university admissions are based on students’ final results from secondary school and the minimum score requirements change from one year to another. Breivik never completed his secondary education.
Source: Agence France-Presse, August 7, 2013
Related article: Maximum penalty under Norwegian law
There are three types of maximum penalty laws:
- The maximum penalty under the military penal code is life imprisonment.
- The maximum determinate penalty (civilian penal code) is 21 years imprisonment, but only a small percentage of prisoners serve more than 14 years. Prisoners will typically get unsupervised parole for weekends, etc. after serving ⅓ of their sentence (a maximum of 7 years), and can receive early release after serving ⅔ of their sentence (a maximum of 14 years). In 2008, to fulfill its requirements under the Rome Statute, Norway created a new maximal penalty of 30 years for crimes against humanity.[1]
- The indeterminate penalty (civilian penal code), called "preventive detention" (Norwegian: forvaring), is set at up to 21 years imprisonment, with no eligibility for parole for a time period not exceeding 10 years. If the prisoner is still considered dangerous after serving the original sentence, the detention can be extended by five years at a time. Renewal of the detention every five years can in theory result in actual life imprisonment. Preventive detention is used when the prisoner is deemed a danger to society and there is a great chance of his committing violent crimes in the future.[2] However, after the minimum time period has elapsed, the offender can petition for parole once every year, and this may be granted if it is determined that he is no longer a danger to society.
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