On Sunday last week, four main suspects in the terrorist attack in Moscow were detained in a Russian court in open camera. All four had visible signs of ill-treatment and torture.
Videos and photos on social media show what appear to be Russian security forces cutting off the ear of one of the terror suspects following his arrest last weekend.
The security forces allegedly tried to force the terrorist suspect to eat his own ear.
Now one of Russia’s most famous nationalist and propagandist voices is coming out and defending the authorities’ use of torture on those accused of terrorism.
Margarita Simonjan, who is a TV editor for the state propaganda channel RT (formerly Russia Today), emphasizes that the terror suspects will not receive the same treatment as Anders Behring Breivik.
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– This is not Norway!
It is the BBC’s Francis Scarr, who monitors Russian media, who has posted a Russian TV clip on X with English translation of the TV editor’s “defense speech” justifying torture.
– We hope that this boy, who did not hold back and cut off his ear, will not be punished for this. And come at me with all your liberal curses and say whatever you want. I don’t care, because believe me, an overwhelming majority of our countrymen have completely different things to mourn and think about in this situation than a severed ear. Do you understand? This is not Norway! says Simonjan in the TV clip.
Simonjan then highlights the practice of Norwegian legal security and criticizes the Norwegian authorities’ “mild” treatment of the 22 July terrorist.
– If you want to go to Norway, then go. Breivik shot dozens of children there. Children! And how long was his prison sentence? 21 years because they could not give him a longer sentence. He has multiple rooms, an exercise room, he plays video games, and even complains that he doesn’t get access to certain things, the right video games, gets less time to play, or whatever. Is that how it should be? It’s not going to be like that, says Simonjan in the clip reproduced by the BBC’s Francis Scarr.
Scarr does not state which TV channel the clip was broadcast on or when it was shown.
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“The purpose of this kind of rhetoric, among other things, is obviously to draw attention away from what is apparently a major failure committed by Russian intelligence,” Scarr writes in the message.
American intelligence recently came out and warned of a possible imminent terrorist attack in Moscow. However, the warning was rejected by Russia.
– The West is portrayed as “crazy”
Eskil Grendahl Sivertsen is a researcher and special advisor at the Norwegian Defense Research Institute (FFI). He has seen the TV clip posted on X.
– This is one of many typical statements that both she and other state-employed propagandists constantly make to the Russian audience, says Sivertsen to Nettavisen.
Sivertsen is an expert on Russian influence operations and propaganda.
– This is part of one of several narratives that the Kremlin, via Russian state-controlled media, pushes out to a Russian public that the West is in moral decay and that Russia is the last bastion to defend the last integrity, says Sivertsen.
– To prove this narrative that the West is completely out of control, they often come up with examples taken from reality. It has a kernel of truth, but is picked apart just as it suits and placed in a completely different context, he says.
– These are banal measures. For those of us who know the Breivik case, we know that he has been sentenced to 21 years in prison. But here it is presented as if there is a guy who has killed a lot of children and only gets 21 years in prison, in addition to the fact that he gets to live a kind of luxurious life in prison. The West is portrayed as a “crazy” place that Russians will recognize as a place where decency and morality have completely disappeared, he says.
Sivertsen says that the RT editor is well known to the home audience in Russia.
– She is one of several very clearly stated figures in the Russian public who make outrageous claims, stir up the mood and help reinforce the narrative that Putin wants to reinforce, he says.
Sentenced to 21 years in prison
Breivik was sentenced to 21 years in detention in 2012. Being sentenced to detention means that the terrorist has been sentenced to an indefinite sentence that can be extended. Breivik thus risks being in prison for the rest of his life.
The 22 July terrorist has on two occasions sued the state for what he believes to be unworthy prison conditions and prison isolation. The terrorist believes that the prison conditions violate Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which states that: “no one must be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”
In 2017, the state was acquitted in the Court of Appeal. In 2024, Breivik made another attempt to sue the state. The state was acquitted in the district court, and Breivik appealed the case to the court of appeal.
The terror convict has also appealed the case to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg. The case was dismissed by the court.
Over 140 people were killed and over 200 injured in the terrorist attack on a concert hall in Moscow on the Friday before Easter.
The Afghan branch of the terrorist group IS, IS Khorasan (ISKP), has claimed responsibility for the terrorist attack.
Tags: terrorist attack Moscow Torture Russian propaganda top resents Norway Breiviks prison sentence
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