Pedophile may have faked letters of recommendation

Two of the men who are noted in documents as having written letters of recommendation for Hjalti Sigurjón Hauksson, a man convicted of raping his stepdaughter almost daily for twelve years, say they were fooled into writing the letters.  They believed they were signing letters to help him find a new job as a coach driver, not for the purpose of restored honour. 

Hauksson has dismissed this claim in Icelandic media.  The one genuine letter received by the Ministry of Justice to testify to Hauksson's good character was written by Benedikt Sveinsson, father of Prime Minister Bjarni Benediktsson. 

"If it appears that the letters were forged then it's a matter for police of course," says Minister of Justice Sigríður Á. Andersen. "If the documents are not truthful then the decision in itself, to restore honour, is wrong as well."

Andersen spoke at a governmental meeting this morning rejecting accusations of secrecy or silencing connected to this matter. As we previously reported, Andersen told the Prime Minister that his father had signed a letter of recommendation for Hauksson in July. 

She said that it was undeserved to accuse her or specialists at the Ministry of supressing information when their one goal was to treat sensitive matters with great delicacy. 

"We can't take back if people have been informed of information which should be secret, but lack of information is something we can always improve on, and something that was improved on."