Defence seeks acquittal in Reykholt violence case

Defence lawyers for brothers Pétur Már Mortensen Birgisson and Andri Már Mortensen Birgisson called for their acquittal or the lightest possible sentences in closing arguments in the Reykholt case at the District Court of South Iceland on Thursday, mbl.is reported.

Sveinn Guðmundsson, Pétur’s lawyer, said his client was a young man who entered the chain of events late and was called into circumstances created by others. Pétur was not present when the attack took place on Friday evening and during the early hours of Saturday, Sveinn said, and did not know what had happened when he arrived at the victim’s home in Reykholt in Biskupstungur.

Sveinn emphasised that Pétur helped the victim after the attack. He prepared a place for him to sleep, gave him painkillers and water, helped him shower and treated some of his wounds.

He said Pétur had repeatedly tried to leave but returned after Andri contacted him. His behaviour did not indicate that he had participated in the offences voluntarily, Sveinn argued. Instead, he had been trapped in the circumstances and feared his brother. Sveinn also referred to Pétur having been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder because of the case.

Andri’s lawyer, Þorgils Þorgilsson, primarily requested that the case be dismissed, and alternatively sought an acquittal or the lightest possible sentence.

Þorgils said Andri had initially travelled to Reykholt to collect unpaid rent, but that the situation had then escalated considerably. He referred, among other things, to Andri’s own account that the victim had attacked him with a knife, after which Andri became very frightened and lost control.

The lawyer said Andri had been dealing with a serious anxiety disorder, which could also be heard in phone recordings. It was therefore not possible to treat everything Andri said in the recordings as reliable testimony, he argued.

Þorgils also criticised the police investigation and said the victim’s account of events had been unstable and inconsistent. He pointed to discrepancies in the victim’s accounts of how many people were present, whether he had been tied up and, if so, by his hands or feet, as well as who had assaulted him and how.

He further criticised the investigation into the victim’s injuries, saying it had not been shown that specific injuries, including tooth loss and fractures, were connected to the attack in the manner described in the indictment.

Þorgils said the investigation had been inadequate in several respects. He argued that police had effectively stopped investigating once recordings were found on Andri’s phone, believing that the recordings were sufficient. He also pointed out that the victim had spent more than 14 hours in Paris when his flight stopped there en route to Malta.