The Odense District Court has sentenced a 52-year-old man to 40 days in prison for a Facebook comment praising Anders Behring Breivik’s 2011 terror attacks. The court found the seven-word comment amounted to public approval of terrorism.
Avisen Danmark reports that Retten i Odense delivered the verdict on Tuesday against the man, who lives near Otterup on Funen. The conviction concerns a comment he posted on March 16, 2025, on Jyllands-Posten’s Facebook page. He wrote that Breivik then came as if sent from heaven.
The comment appeared in a thread tied to an opinion piece about angry young men on the political flanks. Another reader reported it to police about a month later. The man was charged in June 2026 with publicly approving terror.
In court, the man described himself as a national socialist and called Breivik’s attacks impressive, according to Avisen Danmark. He said Breivik had defended his country against Islamization, but called it tragic that children were among the victims. He also said he had no intention of keeping quiet.
The attacks referenced took place on July 22, 2011, in Oslo and on the island of Utøya, killing 77 people. Most were participants at the Labour Party youth camp. Breivik was sentenced in 2012 to preventive detention of up to 21 years, which Reuters has noted can be extended as long as he is deemed dangerous.
A pre-sentence social inquiry described the man as having had a difficult childhood and no education. He lives on social assistance in a caravan on his sister’s property. He told the court he had never planned his life beyond trying to keep things from going wrong.
The presiding judge said the phrase about being sent from heaven had to be understood as a tribute to the attacks in Norway. The unanimous court found he was very close to having direct intent to publicly incite terror. The sentence was based on a 2020 Supreme Court judgment.
TV 2 reported in January 2020 that Højesteret upheld a 30-day suspended sentence in that earlier case. It concerned a Facebook comment saying the perpetrator of a London mosque attack should have a medal. The Odense court said a suspended sentence was not possible here, since the earlier defendant had shown regret.
Fyens Stiftstidende reported ahead of the trial that the case is part of a wider set of Danish prosecutions over social media comments about terror attacks. In a December 2024 overview, Berlingske counted three unconditional prison sentences, three suspended sentences and three acquittals in such cases by late 2024.
The provision used is Section 136(2) of the Criminal Code on explicit approval of terror. In a judgment published on February 22, 2024, Københavns Byret applied the same provision to a Snapchat video celebrating the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack. That case ended with a four-month suspended sentence and 100 hours of community service.
The 52-year-old accepted the verdict and can apply to serve the sentence with an electronic ankle tag.
