[melliedee]

But to keep him in jail for the rest of his life, in the country's famously comfortable prison system, would be unheard of in the peaceful, egalitarian country of five million people, said Carol Sandbye, a lawyer who works in Norway's office of public prosecutions.

She said the country's General Civil Penal Code gives the state prosecutor the right to seek an extension of sentences beyond the 21-year maximum for up to five years at a time, on the condition that the inmate is deemed to be a "high risk" of repeating serious offences.

Sandbye, who was fielding media calls at the Oslo Police District office Sunday, said it's therefore technically possible to keep extending a sentence indefinitely.

"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."

Norway suspect could be jailed beyond max sentence: Prosecutor