Former BURZUM Leader VARG VIKERNES' Parole Rejected

Former BURZUM leader and convicted murderer and arsonist Varg Vikernes (photo) (a.k.a. "Greven"),who has served 12 years out of a 21-year jail sentence, will not be released from prison just yet.

The Norwegian prison authorities have denied Vikernes' parole application, according to the newspaper Dagbladet.

Varg's attorney John Christian Elden says Vikernes' release is long overdue.

"He is disappointed by the decision because he feels he is ready to come back into the general community," says Elden.

Vikernes was convicted for the murder of MAYHEM frontman Øystein Aarseth and three counts of church burnings.

Vikernes has served 12 years out of the 21-year jail sentence, and in accordance with the previous legislation, he is due for parole. But during the years Vikernes spent behind bars, the government passed laws to increase the number of years required in time served before one can be considered for parole to 14 years for 21-year sentences, which is the most severe time-based punishment in Norway.

Elden says it is unreasonable that these new regulations are retroactive.

"We are baffled the Department of Justice chooses to use laws that came into effect nine years after he stared serving his sentence," says Elden.

Vikernes, 33, was known as Count Grishnackh in the days of his one-man music project BURZUM. A neo-Nazi today, he subscribes to "heathen Odalism" and is the creator of the far-right All Germanic Heathen Front.

He was imprisoned for 21 years in 1993 for the murder of former friend Oystein Aarseth, also known as Euronymous, whom he stabbed 23 times. Aarseth was another leading member of the black metal scene that caught the imagination of the Norwegian press after a series of arson attacks on churches back in the '90s.

Vikernes himself had also been found guilty of the arson of a church in Bergen. On his arrest, police found 100 kg of explosives in his home.

In October 2003, he failed to return to prison after being granted a short leave, and was later apprehended by police with an unloaded assault rifle, 700 rounds of ammo, and a handheld GPS system.