“Received instructions from the Court of Appeal”
Karl Ingi Vilbergsson, prosecutor for the District Attorney's Office, Sindri Snær Birgisson and Ísidór Nathansson, the suspects in the case. Composite image
The District Attorney has issued new charges against Sindri Snær Birgisson and Ísidór Nathansson in the so-called terrorism case. The charges will be released to the men at their arraignment on Monday.
Regional Prosecutor Ólafur Þór Hauksson confirms this in a conversation with mbl.is today.
More closely aligned to the demands of the judicial authority
Karl Ingi Vilbergsson, the prosecutor for the district attorney’s office, says he is confident that the new charges will be more closely matched to the demands of the judicial authority.
“Yes, we received specific instructions from the Court of Appeal and are trying to follow them.”
The District Court dismissed the terrorism part of the case in February for unclear wording in the indictment. The District Court upheld the District Court's ruling in March but was split its decision.
In its ruling, the Court of Appeal said the prosecution had to specify much more clearly and accurately the charges and what phrases and statements in the communication between Birgisson and Nathansson it believed showed that Birgisson had made a decision to commit a terrorist act.
It was also believed that the prosecution did not properly account for Birgisson’s preparatory activities and how they related to his intent to commit a terrorist act. In this way, Isidór’s involvement had not been described either, and there was a lack of a description or explanation of his motivation and subversion to Birgisson’s intentions.
Put forth as a single case again
A hearing in the part of the case pertaining to arms was postponed in the past month because, among other things, a decision had not been made to issue new charges in the terrorism part of the case. Vilbergsson says that the two cases will now be reunited.
“The arms part of the case remained, and we were going to meet on Monday because of that. Then the charges went into the court this week and it gets a new case number. That case is so combined with this case concerning the arms part and this case will be run as one case,” Vilbergsson says.
