Court plays accused man’s calls in Reykholt case

The first hours of the trial in the Reykholt case were spent listening to recordings of calls from the phone of Andri Már Mortensen Birgisson, mbl.is reported. He and five other Icelandic men are accused of a particularly dangerous assault, deprivation of liberty, unlawful coercion and robbery.

No defendants were present when proceedings began at 9.15am at the South Iceland District Court on Monday. Two defendants are expected to appear before the court later in the day.

The six men are charged with attacking a Palestinian man in his sixties who holds Maltese citizenship. The alleged large-scale and particularly dangerous assault took place in Reykholt in South Iceland two years ago.

The trial began with numerous recordings of conversations from Andri’s phone. The first was made shortly after midnight on April 16, 2024, during a conversation between Andri and Sigurður Gunnar Ásgeirsson about how to resolve certain business matters.

Later that day, Andri and Sigurður discussed when Andri should go to the man’s home. Andri referred to the man as an “Arab devil”. They agreed that he would go there after finishing work at a plant nursery in Laugarás at 3pm.

The next recording appears to have been made at the Palestinian man’s home on the afternoon of April 17. Andri called Sigurður, the man’s tenant, and asked him to tell the man directly that he either had to provide a receipt confirming that he had paid nine months’ rent in cash or transfer the money to Sigurður.

It was also said that confirmation of the nine months’ rent had not reached Andri’s accounting firm, which he said was handling Sigurður’s tax affairs in the man’s presence.

The following day, Andri told Sigurður that he intended to take two men with him to the man’s home after work the next day. They would threaten him into accompanying them to a Landsbankinn ATM in Selfoss and transferring money to Andri’s account. Andri had previously asked him to make the transfer, but he had refused.

“I’m not going to make this too severe,” Andri told his father-in-law, who also lent him a black Range Rover. “I need to frighten him, to make him understand that these are not empty words.”

Andri said it was time to take emergency measures. “Unfortunately, my dear Siggi, being kind does not always work, so now I’m going to be a little bad on your behalf,” he said.