Human rights of mass murderer
What you need to know:
UNPROTECTED? Anders Breivik Norway’s self-confessed murderer of 77 people, complains of violation of his human rights, mainly that he is confined to a solitary, high security area of the prison premises where he is serving a 21-year term.
There are times when one is confused, others that one is very confused, and then there are times that one is at a loss of words, this is exactly how I feel now.
I see that Norway’s mass murderer Anders Breivik has made it again to the news, this time for very interesting reasons. A self-confessed murderer of 77 people, complains of violation of his human rights, mainly that he is confined to a solitary, high security area of the prison premises where he is serving a 21-year term, also that his freedom of speech is being suppressed by prison authorities.
In his cell
Breivik has access to three cells, one for living, one for exercising and one is a study area, with a computer without internet, a television set, and a game station. He is also allowed visits from friends and family, but no one comes to visit him.
When Breivik thought that his human rights are violated and decided to protest against it, the government of Norway hired lawyers to defend him and footed the bill that cost tax payers almost £40,000. So, while Breivik, seems to ‘ suffer’ during his imprisonment, I want to recall other prison conditions I have known or seen myself.
On the Ugandan scene
I was once called to translate for a prisoner who was held in the cells of Jinja Road Police Station. The reception of the station, was worn and torn with effects of time and neglect. I had to cross the reception to reach the office blocks on the left side of the building; I did not expect to see the prison cells right in front of me. It looked very dark and sombre with hands of some detainees extended beyond the cell grills, as of reaching out for some fresh air, it was a very sad scene. Once the prisoner I was translating for was brought in, I noticed that he was barefoot on a filthy cement floor! I was told later that the prisoner’s shoes are taken away because he might run away, or something of the sort.
Compared to other cells
I did what I have to do and left the station hoping that I won’t go there ever again. I’m sure the Jinja Road Police station might also seem like heaven compared to some others that one hears about in Afghanistan and some South American countries. The conditions of these prisons and the prisoners, among whom some are innocent, wrongly jailed or have no access to lawyers, are so pathetic that I wonder if we are talking about the same human beings or not, ones in European prisons and ones in other parts of the world.
I know people who have been languishing in solitary cells for so many years because of their religious beliefs. They have no access to fresh air, no mattress, no health care and definitely no lawyer who can defend their ‘human rights’. It is indeed a weird world we live in today.
Who is Breivik?
Jailed Norwegian far-right terrorist Anders Behring Breivik, who killed 77 people in 2011 when he bombed central Oslo before going on a shooting spree at a Labour Youth camp on the island of Utoeya, returned to court to argue that his prison isolation violates his rights.
