The mass murderer Anders Behring-Breivik has accused Norwegian authorities of "inhuman" and "degrading" treatment in prison which violates his human rights.
The killer, who is serving 21 years in jail for the 2011 killing of 77 people, is being held at a high-security facility in Norway.
He is suing the Norwegian state over his treatment, which he claims is in contravention of the European Convention on Human Rights.
A hearing will be held at the Skein Prison, where the 37-year-old killer is being held, later this month.
Ahead of the hearing the office of Norway's attorney general has defended the conditions applied to Breivik's incarceration.
According to a document submitted to the Oslo district court, authorities believe "the measures which have been applied to the plaintiff...are well within the limits of what is permitted".
The document reveals Breivik has access to three cells within the jail: one for living in, another for studying and a third for exercise.
He has access to a TV, a computer and a games console.
Breivik is not allowed contact with other inmates, but he interacts with guards and professional staff.
"There are limits to his contact with the outside world which are of course strict - it pretty much has to be that way - but he is not totally excluded from all contact with other people," Marius Emberland, the lawyer who will defend the state at the hearing, told AFP.
But Breivik's lawyer Oystein Storrvik claims his client has been suffering from "clear isolation damage" caused by him being cut off from visitors.
Storrvik said in another document submitted to the court that "the only visit from a non-professional (in the first two years of Breivik's sentence) was that of the plaintiff’s mother" just before she died of cancer.
Breivik also accuses the state of not respecting "his private and family life...and his correspondence".
Authorities say the restrictions are necessary to prevent Breivik from building up an "extremist network" outside the prison.
Breivik murdered eight people in a bomb attack on July 22nd 2011. He later killed a further 69 people when he opened fire on the island of Utoya.
He was sentenced to serve 21 years in jail in August 2012.
