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“You can, but it’s highly unlikely,” she told Postmedia News in a telephone interview. “That would mean that person is going to spend his entire life in jail.”

Sandbye said that inmates in all “civilized countries” without the death penalty are eventually paroled. But in Canada it is widely assumed notorious serial killers Clifford Olson and Paul Bernardo will die in prison.

Sandbye acknowledged that the devastating mass murder Friday could prompt a debate about whether some people should always remain behind bars.

“That’s what the world needs to understand about Norway, is that this incident represents our loss of innocence, because we’ve been a very safe country to live in until now,” she said.

“There’s been no reason to keep people in prison for life.”

Breivik said through his lawyer Sunday that he wants to explain his actions in his first court appearance Monday.

That has prompted speculation that he hopes to promote his far-right theories outlined in a lengthy online essay and video circulating on social media this weekend about a “necessary” violent crusade against “cultural Marxism” and the “Islamization of Europe.”

“He has said that he believed the actions were atrocious, but that in his head they were necessary,” lawyer Geir Lippestad told a Norwegian TV station, adding that Breivik admitted to the bombing in Oslo and mass shootings of young Norwegians on a nearby island resort.

If convicted, Breivik would serve time in a penal system that has been both praised and ridiculed for its comforts and conveniences.