The mother of confessed terrorist Anders Behring Breivik is still living at an undisclosed location in Norway after police cordoned off her apartment in Oslo’s Skøyen district. It’s become part of their investigation, since Breivik lived with her at the apartment for several years and visited often after moving out.
Police raided the apartment shortly after Breivik was arrested on the evening of July 22. Earlier in the day he had bombed Norway’s government complex in downtown Oslo, killing eight persons, and then carried out a massacre at a Labour Party summer camp where he shot and killed down 69 persons. Breivik, a right-wing extremist, has said he was trying to launch a war against Islam in Europe, and blamed the Labour-led government for allowing Norway to become a multi-cultural society.
Breivik’s mother hasn’t been in the apartment at Skøyen since police turned it into a crime scene following her son’s arrest six weeks ago. Prosecutor Christian Hatlo of the Oslo Police District told newspaper Aftenposten that police had not yet released the apartment. She has requested legal assistance when she eventually is allowed to return.
The 32-year-old Breivik’s relationship to his mother has been described as close and good, but he moved from Skøyen to a farm south of Rena in Hedmark County, eastern Norway, where he allegedly built his bomb and plotted his attacks. Police have found and detonated explosives at the farm and were back at the site this week as part of their investigation into the attacks that killed 77 persons, injured scores of others and caused extensive damage to government headquarters.
Hatlo told Aftenposten, though, that as far as he knew, Breivik had not asked about his mother since July 22. His parents divorced years ago and his father, a retired Norwegian diplomat, lives in France. Breivik remains in full isolation at Ila Prison outside Oslo.
Despite Breivik’s deadly rampage, many people in Norway have expressed sympathy for his mother on social media sites and wondered how she is doing. Hatlo said she is in Norway and police have offered her medical help. He wouldn’t detail what sort of help was required or where in Norway she was.
She’s been questioned by police, who also have questioned other relatives and friends of the family.
Views and News from Norway/Nina Berglund
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