OSLO, Nov 19, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Right-wing extremist Anders Behring Breivik, who killed 77 people in Norway in twin attacks in 2011, will ask a court Tuesday for parole for the second time, a request widely expected to be denied.

Under Norwegian law, the 45-year-old is allowed to seek conditional early release once a year after having served 10 years of his sentence.

His first parole request in January 2022 was denied, with the court concluding there was a "clear risk" he would resume the behaviour that led to the July 22, 2011 attacks.

"He's asking for parole, but that's not so probable," his lawyer Oystein Storrvik told AFP ahead of the three-day hearing opening Tuesday.

Breivik is due to address the court himself during the hearing, held at the Ringerike prison gymnasium for security purposes.

He has in the past used his court appearances to express his extremist views.

"We want the court to consider his progression, he has a right to... develop and have better living conditions so he can have some kind of future," Storrvik said.

Breivik was in 2012 sentenced to 21 years in prison, Norway's then-harshest sentence which can be extended as long as he is considered a threat to society.

He has been held apart from other inmates in high-security facilities for more than 12 years.

- 'Unbridled violence' -

In February 2024, he lost a lawsuit brought against the Norwegian state in which he argued that his extended isolation was a violation of the European Convention on Human Rights, which prohibits "inhumane" and "degrading" treatment.

The state argued that his strict, yet comfortable, conditions were justified due to the "extreme risk of totally unbridled violence".

On July 22, 2011, the right-wing extremist set off a truck bomb near government offices in Oslo, killing eight people, before heading to the island of Utoya where, disguised as a police officer, he shot dead 69 others, mostly teens, attending a Labour Party youth-wing summer camp.

He said he killed his victims because they embraced multiculturalism.

Storrvik said external psychologists had conducted a comprehensive evaluation of Breivik for the first time in 12 years, and will present their 109-page report to the court.

Storrvik refused to disclose its conclusions, but said: "I think it can be useful for us."

Prosecutor Hulda Olsen Karlsdottir told news agency NTB the report has not changed her view.

"The new evaluation has not changed the prosecution's view on the issue of his release," she said.

During court hearings earlier this year, Breivik said he was depressed and addicted to Prozac, at times breaking down in sobs.

The date for the court's ruling has yet to be set.