A Terrorist’s First World Problems

When you hear this description — “a three-room suite with windows that includes a treadmill, a fridge, a television with DVD player and even a Sony PlayStation” — what comes to mind? Probably a nice hotel. Maybe even a college dormitory. Amazingly, that’s what The New York Times says Norwegian terrorist Anders Breivik resides in despite taking 77 innocent lives (many of them in their youth) five years ago. But that’s not even the most unbelievable part.

Breivik made a fuss about confinement procedures last month because, in the Times' words, he “has virtually no contact with other inmates and is subjected to frequent strip searches and searches of his cell.” He claimed that these supposed violations were commensurate with torture. (If anyone wants to know what actual torture is, try talking to the thousands of family members and friends whose loved ones were taken by a deranged self-proclaimed Nazi.)

Astoundingly, his complaints were heard and a remedy was granted: “Judge Helen Andenaes Sekulic of the Oslo District Court … found on Wednesday that prison officials had violated an article of the European Convention of Human Rights that prohibits ‘inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.’ She directed the government to reduce the extent of Mr. Breivik’s isolation — though she did not specify how — and ordered the government to pay Mr. Breivik’s legal fees of 331,000 kroner, or about $40,600.”

This is one of those stories that’s downright surreal. Imagine Timothy McVeigh or James Holmes or any other mass killer in America being sentenced to prison with luxurious accommodations only to whine about — and be granted further accommodations for — the way life revolves behind bars. Writing in National Review, David Pryce-Jones says, “The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) is something absolutely novel, the very first measure that promotes genuine license above the powers of the state.” And that, he summarily opines, is the real tragedy. This is leftism at its worst.