Norwegian mass killer Breivik applies for Oslo University

PanARMENIAN.Net - Norwegian mass killer Anders Behring Breivik has applied for a place at Oslo University - a move that is reportedly causing outrage among staff, BBC News reports.

The head of the university's political science institute confirmed a request had been made by the man whose attacks two years ago traumatized Norway.

No decision has been made on whether to accept it, Ole Petter Ottersen said.

Breivik, who is serving a 21-year sentence in a prison near Oslo, killed 77 people, most of them adolescents.

On July 22, 2011, he set off a bomb in a car near government offices in the capital before travelling to a lake island, where he shot people attending a summer camp of the ruling Labor Party's youth wing. He sought to justify the meticulously planned twin attacks, which also left 244 people injured, by saying they were aimed at stopping the "Islamisation" of Norway.

A court convicted him of terrorism and premeditated murder, and handed down the maximum sentence of 21 years' imprisonment.

Ottersen confirmed a Norwegian TV report that Breivik was seeking to enroll at the university. "We don't know if his candidacy will be accepted," he said.

One formal obstacle to his enrolment may be his lack of qualifications, as he did not complete secondary school.

Several unnamed members of college staff who spoke to Norway's TV2 channel said they were opposed to any dealings with the killer.

"I understand very well that this causes reactions, it is human to feel that," Ottersen commented.

Per Anders Torvik Langerod, a political scientist and politician from the Labor Party's youth wing, suggested that a course at the university might make Breivik confront his own extreme beliefs.

"Blindern [Oslo University] is a place where one learns that one should pursue one's opinions with words," he said. "You cannot tape over the mouths of those you disagree with, or shoot them, and that's some of what I hope will be a punishment for Breivik. If he wants to relate to these studies and get what he wants, credits, he must do it our way."

Knut Bjarkeid, the director of Ila prison where Breivik is being held, told TV2 the jail would always try to help its inmates "get a formal qualification so that they have the ability to get a job when they come out".