Witness in Reykholt case unable to continue testimony

The younger brother of Andri Már Mortensen Birgisson testified at South Iceland District Court on Wednesday in the Reykholt case, mbl.is reports. He said the events of the weekend were blurred in his memory, but that he saw injuries on the alleged victim and noticed a “horrible smell of blood”.

He said he had been afraid to report the events to police because of his brother. He also felt unable to leave the situation, much like the alleged victim.

The witness became highly distressed during the hearing. The testimony was paused several times before he ultimately said he did not feel able to continue.

He is accused, along with five others including Andri, Andri’s fiancée Ingunn and her father Sigurður, of entering the home of the alleged victim, a Palestinian man in his sixties who holds Maltese citizenship. They are accused of unlawfully depriving him of his freedom, subjecting him to a particularly dangerous assault and unlawful coercion, and robbing him.

The witness said Andri called him at 4am on Saturday, April 20, 2024, waking him and asking him to drive Ingunn to Reykholt. Audio recordings of Andri’s calls were played on the first day of the main proceedings.

“Andri calls me, saying that someone is trying to murder him. I set off, in a bit of shock,” the brother told the court.

He said he picked up Ingunn on the way to Reykholt and that she was extremely distraught and not in the right state of mind.

“I did not know what I was going to do. I thought I was going to pick up Andri and leave,” he said.

When they arrived in Reykholt, he said, “there was a great deal of fog”, meaning that he had difficulty remembering the events of the night and the entire weekend. He described his memories as being as though someone had been holding their hands over his ears.

The next thing he remembered was Andri asking him for his car keys shortly after he arrived in Reykholt. Late on Saturday evening or early on Sunday morning, Andri said he needed to “medicate himself” with painkillers, and they went into town to obtain them.

The brother then went to a friend’s home and went straight to sleep. “I just wanted to get away from this,” he said.

After waking to a phone call or an alarm on Sunday, he said he suffered what appeared to be an anxiety or panic attack and immediately returned to Reykholt. He said he spent the day there in a state of confusion, apart from a few incidents.