Mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik gave a Nazi salute on Tuesday as he entered court for a parole hearing that will decide if he should be released after spending more than a decade behind bars.

Breivik massacred 77 people in July 2011 during Norway’s most violent peace time atrocity ever. The far-right extremist killed eight people with a car bomb outside the government headquarters in Oslo before gunning down 69 others on the island of Utoya at a Labour Party youth camp, most of them teenagers.

The Telemark District Court will rule whether Breivik is still so dangerous that society needs extra protection against him. Under Norweigan law, the 42-year-old is eligible to seek parole after serving the first 10 years of his term.

As he entered the court wearing a dark suit with a shaven head, Breivik made a white supremacist sign with his fingers before raising his right arm in a Nazi salute signalling that he had entered the court.

He also carried signs, printed in English, including one that said “Stop your genocide against our white nations” and “Nazi-Civil-War”.

Addressing the judge, Breivik described himself as a parliamentary candidate.

Breivik is serving Norway's maximum sentence of 21 years, which can be extended indefinitely if he is deemed a continued threat to society.

The Telemark court in Skien, southwest of the capital, where Breivik is serving his sentence, will hear the case this week after the Oslo state prosecutor's office last year rejected his application for early release.

“Our position is that it is necessary with (continued) confinement to protect society,” the prosecutor in charge, Hulda Karlsdottir, told Reuters ahead of the hearing.

Prosecutor Hulda Karlsdottir started the hearing by saying the imprisonment conditions of Breivik, who legally changed his name to Fjotolf Hansen in 2017, will have no influence on the matter of parole.

Proceedings will take place over a maximum of four days in a prison gymnasium converted into a makeshift courtroom, with a decision expected about a week later.

If his request for release is denied, Breivik can apply for a new probation hearing in a year's time, Karlsdottir said.

Families of the victims and survivors had feared Brevik would be given a platform that could inspire like-minded ideologues and grandstand his extreme views during the hearing, which experts say is unlikely to deliver him an early release.

“The only thing I am afraid of is if he has the opportunity to talk freely and convey his extreme views to people who have the same mindset,” Lisbeth Kristine Røyneland, who heads a family and survivors support group, said ahead of the hearing.

Breivik lost a human rights case in 2017 when an appeals court overturned the decision of a lower court that his near-isolation in a three-room cell was inhumane.

The European Court of Human Rights rejected a subsequent appeal.

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