Appeals court doubles sentence for unlawful entry

Iceland’s Court of Appeal has doubled a man’s suspended prison sentence for unlawfully entering an apartment with two others, upholding his conviction, mbl.is reported. He was sentenced to 60 days in prison, suspended in full, up from 30 days in the district court. He must also pay a total of 2,287,026 krónur in connection with the case.

The case concerns a break-in in the early hours of 11 February 2023. One of the three men repeatedly punched and kicked a guest in the head, causing fractures on both sides of the victim’s jaw and a broken tooth. The defendant in the appeal was charged with the break-in; the assault charge was brought only against another man, who received a nine-month suspended sentence in the district court.

Witnesses in the apartment said all three men forced their way in. The defendant and one of the others then prevented people from helping the victim, according to the Court of Appeal’s ruling.

The court agreed with the district court that the defendant’s account—that he had not entered without permission—was implausible, contradictory and unsupported by witness testimony. It also said he had played down his involvement in his district court testimony. The court found that he must have known he had no permission to enter, or at least had disregarded that fact.

The defendant also argued that the case was time-barred because more than two years had passed between his police interview and the indictment. The Court of Appeal ruled that the limitation period had been interrupted when he was interviewed on 11 February 2023. Although the investigation appeared to have paused for almost ten months, from May 2023 to March 2024, the court said it had not stopped indefinitely under the law. The investigation had covered four people and examined their respective roles in the break-in and the assault.

In setting the sentence, the court described the break-in as serious and noted that it was committed at night by several people. It suspended the sentence in full, taking the man’s criminal record into account.