VARG VIKERNES Charged With Armed Robbery, Faces Transfer To Maximum-Security Prison

BURZUM mastermind Varg Vikernes, who is serving a 21-year sentence for the August 1993 murder of MAYHEM guitarist Oystein Aarseth (a.k.a. Euronymous),has been charged with armed robbery in connection with his attempted jailbreak Sunday, the Norwegian media has reported.

The charge, which carries a maximum sentence of 12 years, was based a family's claim that Vikernes threatened them with a pistol and hijacked their car — an allegation that was corroborated by several eyewitness accounts. Varg was arrested several hours later while traveling in the family's vehicle on the outskirts of Oslo, but no gun was found in the car and Vikernes categorically denies having pointed a pistol at the family.

During an interrogation on Monday, Vikernes reportedly revealed that he was planning to escape to Sweden in the stolen car, but changed his mind after speaking to his mother on the telephone.

Vikernes' defense lawyer, John Christian Elden, spoke to his client on Monday. "[Varg] confirmed that [his] frustrations [with how he is being perceived by the media and the general public and the threats that were made on his life while in prison] forced him to flee," Elden told Dagbladet. "He was on his way to Sweden, but changed his mind. After talking to his family, he felt that it wouldn't work [trying to cross the border]."

Police officials are scheduled to decide on Tuesday (October 28) if Vikernes will remain in solitary confinement, where he has been since being taken into custody Monday morning, or if he will be transferred to a maximum-security prison. In either case, Varg will not be returning to the low-security prison Berg in Tønsberg where he was being held at the time of his attempted jailbreak.