Defence lawyer blames Icelanders for taking law into their own hands

Defence lawyer of one of the men charged with rape, Vilhjálmur H.Vilhjálmsson believes Fréttablaðið is responsible for the uproar caused yesterday by members of the public. He will also be looking at pressing charges to all those who published names and photographs of the two men on the internet. 

The accused deny all charges

"In Fréttablaðið yesterday on November 9th 2015 Fréttablaðið wrote a story on its front page that an apartment in Reykjavik had been especially equipped for rape. Here is a video tape of the apartment. Now people have to judge for themselves. Nevertheless the editor of Fréttablaðið chooses to stand by their story. The men accused are denying all charges and all evidence and testimonies support their testimony. They were literally executed online yesterday, a shameful event for Icelanders for centuries. Fréttablaðið and the people responsible for muck spreading are completely responsible, and we will be testing that responsibility," writes Vilhjálmsson in a public post on his Facebook page where the video tape can be watched.  

"Every other housewife in Seltjarnarnes owns these kinds of objects after 50 Shades of Grey."

He adds that owning objects attributed to bondage sex does not imply that an apartment is equipped for rape. "Every other housewife in Seltjarnarnes owns these kinds of objects after 50 Shades of Grey." According to Vilhjálmsson three objects were seized by police: a computer, an old riding crop owned by the grandfather of the apartment's owner and chains from a boxing punch bag."

He states that the people sharing posts on social media with photographs and names of his clients can be charged with libel and that he will be looking into pressing charges. 

"Icelanders became totally crazy"

Vilhjálmsson said to mbl.is, "In these terrible events occurring yesterday when Icelanders, all as one, became totally crazy and a few thousand people decided to take the law into their own hands and condemn my clients as guilty as charged with no regard to the courts of law." He says that consentual sexual relations took place in the the earlier case and that in the second case matters are somewhat more unclear but that the woman had for a short moment had oral intercourse with one man and according to her this was at the order of the other man. This course of events is denied by both defendants. He adds that the descriptions in Fréttablaðið are in no way in accordance with the testimonies of all involved. 

Fréttablaðið has issued an announcement that it is standing by the story.