The sentence of life imprisonment under Norwegian law is restricted to the military penal code (e.g. for aiding the enemy during a time of war).
In the civilian penal code, a law passed in 2002 allows for an indeterminate penalty that could, in theory, result in life imprisonment.
The first Norwegian prisoner ever sentenced to the 21 years' preventive detention (Norwegian: 21 års forvaring) was Viggo Kristiansen, who was convicted of murder and rape, but exonerated in 2022.
There are three types of maximum penalty laws: This is a partial list of people sentenced to Preventive detention in Norway since its introduction in 2001.
As of 2011, there are 76 offenders that are serving a sentence of preventive detention.