The right-wing extremist who murdered 77 people in 2011 is trying to set up a criminal network of fascists from his prison cell, according to Norwegian authorities.
The country’s correctional services agency, Kriminalomsorgen, says it has intercepted around 220 letters written by Anders Breivik to people who he had never contacted before his imprisonment.
“When we take security considerations around Breivik, it’s communication control that is most central,” Erling Fæste, the deputy director of correctional services for the southern region, told Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang.
“This is where we believe that the danger is greatest, partly because we fear that he using letters to create a network that can commit criminal acts.”
The authorities have now put a stop to Brevik sending out mass mailings in order to stop him from building up contacts. “Breivik has no intention of tying ordinary and healthy friendships. The strategy seems to be plenty sent letter to associate as many contacts as possible,” Kriminalomsorgen said in an explanation of its decision.
The right-winger has previously tried to build a political party while in prison, though he has had no success so far.
Breivik openly admits he is against multiculturalism and his political views are predominantly centred around his Islamophobia.
In a manifesto published around the time of the killings he outlined his opposition to the European Union and his support for a conspiracy theory that the supranational bloc is a project to create “Eurabia” – a super-state encompassing Europe and the Arab world.
In 2011 Breivik murdered 77 teenagers in a massacre on the island of Utøya near Oslo. He said he chose his targets on the basis that they were attending the summer camp of the youth wing of Norway’s centre-left Labour Party.
He was sentenced to 21 years in prison with preventive detention in 2012 for his crimes, the harshest sentence available under Norwegian law.