Norwegian mass killer Anders Behring Breivik will appeal his human rights case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, his lawyer has said.
It comes after the Norwegian Supreme Court said it would not take up an appeal protesting against Breivik's prison conditions.
Breivik was seeking to overturn a decision last March by a Norwegian appeals court that ruled that his near-isolation in a three-room cell respected human rights.
The anti-Muslim far-right extremist killed 77 people in Norway's worst peacetime atrocity in July 2011. He killed eight people with a bomb in Oslo and then shot and killed 69 people, many of them teenagers, at a youth meeting of the then-ruling Labour Party.
His appeal had raised dismay, and some laughter, among Norwegians taken aback by Breivik's complaints of cold coffee and microwaved meals he said were "worse than water boarding".
The Supreme Court said in a statement: "No part of Breivik's appeal has the possibility of winning in front of the Supreme Court.
"Neither does the case raise questions about the interpretation of the European Convention on Human Rights that have not already been clarified extensively by the European Court of Human Rights."
Breivik has been told of the Supreme Court's decision, Mona Danielsen, one of his lawyers, told Reuters. She declined to say how he reacted.
Survivors and relatives of the victims welcomed the decision.
"I am very happy. This is very good news and shows that our justice system is working," said Lisbeth Kristine Roeyneland, whose daughter Synne, 18, was shot dead in Breivik's rampage. She leads the main support group for survivors and victims' relatives.
"This ensures that we are not going to see the terrorist for many, many years," she told Reuters.
Another lawyer for Breivik, Oeystein Storrvik said: "We will take this case to Strasbourg as soon as possible.
"We've always been prepared for the possibility that our case before the Norwegian courts may not succeed."
