Court sentences three men for revenge arson attack

Reykjavík District Court has sentenced three men to suspended prison terms for setting fire to a Tesla used by a police detective and her boyfriend, mbl.is reported. The court found that all three knew the attack was an act of revenge, but said it had not been shown that they knew a police officer had use of the car.

Two men received eight-month prison sentences and the third was sentenced to six months. All three sentences were suspended for three years. The woman worked in the metropolitan police narcotics division when the car was set alight.

The fire was started in Reykjavík on the morning of August 17, 2023. The car was parked outdoors and unoccupied. Two of the men went to it, poured petrol under and over the vehicle, and set it on fire, destroying it.

The court found that the man given the six-month sentence had organised and prepared the attack, recruiting another man to carry it out for a promised payment of 100,000 Icelandic krónur. That man first tried to set the car alight during the night but failed. He later enlisted the third man, and they travelled to the car together on an electric scooter the next morning.

The two men who went to the car both received eight-month sentences. The man who first attempted to start the fire was also convicted of attempted aggravated property damage. The three men denied guilt, and the two who went to the scene blamed each other for setting the fire.

In deciding who had lit the car, the court considered a witness account that a man wearing white shoes approached the vehicle while a man in black shoes waited nearby. The man found to have set the fire had confirmed he was wearing white shoes. The court also considered phone records, including messages about the car and voice messages saying the job was done, as well as footage from a petrol station’s surveillance cameras.

The court found that the men had divided up the work and committed the offence together. It said the car was of considerable value and that setting it on fire was a highly blameworthy and dangerous method. The joint attack and the substantial damage increased the sentences, while significant delays in the case reduced them. The man who organised the attack was 18 at the time.

The men were ordered to pay Vörður Insurance 2,754,000 krónur in compensation, jointly, plus interest and late-payment interest. They were also ordered to pay 600,000 krónur in legal costs related to the compensation claim. The court rejected their request to have the case dismissed, which was based in part on alleged bias among investigators because of connections to the victim.