Witnesses describe injured man arriving with a dislocated jaw

Witnesses told the South Iceland District Court on Thursday that a 61-year-old man arrived at his former wife’s home covered in blood and with a visibly displaced jaw after allegedly being assaulted and held against his will. The account was reported by mbl.is.

The man’s daughter and former wife testified remotely shortly after midday. They said he arrived at the home on the evening of April 23, 2024, in very poor condition.

“He was in a very bad state. He had visible bruising and obvious injuries, could barely speak and was confused,” his daughter said. “He had blood and bruises, everything.”

The main proceedings in the case began on Monday. Six defendants are accused of attacking the 61-year-old Palestinian man, who holds Maltese citizenship, in an especially dangerous assault over the weekend of April 19 to 22, 2024. They are also accused of depriving him of his freedom, using unlawful coercion and robbing him.

The case concerns an incident in April 2024 in which a group of people allegedly attacked the man at his home in Reykholt, a settlement in Biskupstungur.

According to case documents, millions of Icelandic krónur were transferred from the man’s account. The defendants allegedly then bought him a flight to Malta, where his daughter lived, and accompanied him, badly injured, to the security checkpoint at Keflavík Airport.

The man has said that he took a taxi from the airport in Malta to his former wife’s home. She testified that she woke to the doorbell shortly before midnight on April 24.

“I asked who was there and heard someone say in a very faint voice: ‘It’s me, let me in,’” she said.

She let him inside and called her daughter, who was nearby. The man walked slowly into the home, holding his side, while she carried his hand luggage inside.

“When I went into the living room and looked at him, his jaw was not in the right place,” she said. “His face was crooked.”

She said he was pale and that his face appeared narrow and turned to one side.

“He asked me to help him sit down, and then he lost consciousness,” she said.

Her daughter arrived shortly afterwards and said that he needed to go to hospital. She asked her mother to leave the room and said she would handle the situation.

The daughter said she drove quickly to her mother’s home and told her not to touch her father. She called an ambulance when she arrived and then contacted the police.

At the hospital, she asked for the police. Officers later tried to speak with her father, who appeared to be in severe pain.

“He was dizzy and had difficulty speaking and was clearly in pain. He was barely conscious,” she said.