Defence seeks acquittal on 68 charges against Iris Helga

Lawyer Helga Vala Helgadóttir has asked a district court to acquit her client, Iris Helga Jónatansdóttir, arguing that prosecutors must prove each of the 68 charges against her. The defence made its closing arguments at Reykjanes District Court on Tuesday, mbl.is reported. If the court does not acquit her, the defence is seeking the lightest possible sentence.

“A judge must not give some kind of bulk discount” on the burden of proof, Helga Vala said. She argued that the number of allegations could not take the place of evidence and criticised what she said was an inadequate investigation of Iris Helga’s claim that remote access to her devices may have been used to send messages from them.

Iris Helga largely denies the charges but acknowledges some of the communications and visits described in the case. She does not consider her admitted conduct to be criminal.

She acknowledged that in 2022 she took a vase of flowers to the home of a man with whom she had recently ended contact. The vase broke during the encounter. Two days later, she returned to the man’s home and kicked a tyre on his car. She also sent him a message saying she would never speak to him again.

She also admitted going to another man’s home to return his daughter’s belongings and give the girl some craft supplies. In a separate incident, she left a date-based treat as a birthday gift at a third man’s home. The defence said Iris Helga did not regard any of these actions as criminal.

She further acknowledged writing messages under her own name about the conduct of other people involved in the case, saying she did so in response to allegations against her.

Helga Vala said her client did not recognise the number of anonymous accounts cited by the prosecutor. She argued that prosecutors must prove Iris Helga was behind accounts used to spread damaging claims about men. In her view, the electronic evidence linked Iris Helga to messages and posts only ambiguously. She also pointed to discrepancies between witness accounts and police records about timing, and said the charges were unclear and covered a period of up to four years.

The defence said Iris Helga had considered it possible that remote access to her devices was used to create accounts later linked to her, but that police had only investigated this possibility recently. According to the defence, a report said there was no evidence of remote access in two of three cases. Helga Vala noted, however, that one of three computers showed signs that the remote-access program TeamViewer had been able to access it at some point.