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Norwegian Mass Killer Demands 'Adult' Video Games In Prison

The verdict against Norwegian mass killer Anders Behring Breivik is delivered in Oslo on Aug. 24, 2012.
Reuters/Landov
The verdict against Norwegian mass killer Anders Behring Breivik is delivered in Oslo on Aug. 24, 2012.

Norwegian mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik, serving a 21-year sentence for a 2011 shooting and bombing rampage that killed 77 people, is threatening to go on a hunger strike unless a list of demands, including access to "adult" video games and a better game console, is met by authorities.

A dozen demands that Breivik originally forwarded to prison officials in November were included in a letter reportedly recieved from the inmate by the French news agency AFP on Friday.

In the neatly typed letter, the right-wing extremist who killed mostly teenagers at a youth camp on the island of Utoya on July 22, 2011, said the prison conditions he's been forced to endure are nothing short of "torture."

The Telegraph says:

"The demands include better conditions for his daily walk and the right to communicate more freely with the outside world, which he argues are in line with European rights legislation.

"He also demanded the replacement of a PlayStation 2 games console for a more recent PS3 'with access to more adult games that I get to choose myself' as well as a sofa or armchair instead of a 'painful' chair.

" 'Other inmates have access to adult games while I only have the right to play less interesting kids games. One example is "Rayman Revolution", a game aimed at three year olds,' wrote the 35-year-old convicted killer."

Breivik also wants an end to daily physical searches at Ila prison, where he is currently housed, access to a personal computer instead of the "worthless typewriter with technology dating back to 1873" that he composed the letter on, and a doubling of his prison allowance.

"You've put me in hell," Breivik wrote, saying he couldn't last much longer under such harsh conditions.

"You are killing me. If I die, all of Europe's right-wing extremists will know exactly who it was that tortured me to death," he said. "That could have consequences for certain individuals in the short term but also when Norway is once again ruled by a facist regime in 13 to 40 years from now."

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Scott Neuman is a reporter and editor, working mainly on breaking news for NPR's digital and radio platforms.