Anders Breivik tells court: I'm like Nelson Mandela and microwave meals are worse than waterboarding

Norweigan mass killer Anders Breivik has claimed he is like ANC hero Nelson Mandela in his latest court appearance. Breivik, who is serving a minimum 21-year-sentence for the mass murder of 77 people in Oslo and on Utoya island in 2011, also likened his microwave meals to waterboarding and complained that his coffee will not stay warm because he does not have access to a flask.

Breivik's appearances are at a special courtroom built inside a gym at Skien prison because of security considerations. Breivik claims his treatment breaches the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) on two counts: inhuman or degrading treatment and being denied the right to a private and family life and correspondence.

Breivik is isolated from other prisoners and is not allowed to see his fiance, who he says he would marry if the state allowed it.

Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 27 years for fighting the injustices of Apartheid and is a respected figure worldwide. Ultranationalist Breivik claimed that Mandela "ordered action," whereas he was the one to "carry out the action," according to a CNN report.

Although the terrorist admitted to being a Nazi he refrained from giving the offensive salute – as he had done yesterday (15 March) – at the request of the judge.

Breivik has three cells, access to a computer without internet, a TV and PlayStation but he said he sometimes receives four microwave meals a day and the same meal consecutively.

He claimed that this treatment amounts to degradation and was "worse than waterboarding". Breivik also accused the state of trying to kill him by holding him in isolation and said it would be "more humane to shoot me than to treat me like an animal as they have done over the past five years."

"It's understandable when it's justified, for example when it involves people who have a violent past or something like that," said Breivik. "But I have been conducting myself in exemplary fashion for five years."

The Norwegian Correctional Service denied Breivik was isolated, saying he had been invited to play chess and indoor hockey with prison volunteers and guards but refused. They also said only a small proportion of letters sent to Breivik had been blocked, mostly from fanatics who might be inspired to copy his actions.