Court halts wife’s remote testimony after male voice is heard

mbl.is reports that the wife of Sigurður Gunnar Ásgeirsson, one of the defendants in the so-called Reykholt case, must give evidence in person after a male voice was heard during her remote testimony on Thursday.

The woman was speaking through Microsoft Teams, with an interpreter in the courtroom translating from English into Icelandic. Shortly after the hearing began, there was suspicion that she was not alone at home because a man’s voice could be heard in the background.

At that point, she had only been asked for her name and national identification number, and whether she had been at home on the evening of Friday, April 19, 2024. Several defendants are accused of breaking into a victim’s home, carrying out an especially dangerous and serious assault, and depriving him of his freedom for an entire weekend.

When asked whether she had been at home, after the male voice was heard, the woman replied in Icelandic: “I know that my husband is innocent.”

The prosecution and the judge said the testimony could not continue under those circumstances. The woman will therefore appear at the District Court of South Iceland in Selfoss at 2.30pm on Thursday.

Her husband is permitted to accompany her into the courtroom, but he may not influence her testimony. The prosecution considered that safeguard insufficient unless she gave evidence in person.