Margrét Halla Löf seeks transfer to Sogn prison

Margrét Halla Hansdóttir Löf, who is serving a 16-year sentence for killing her father, has asked to be transferred from Hólmsheiði prison to Sogn, mbl.is reported on Thursday. Her lawyer, Sigurður G. Guðjónsson, said the request has not received a reply.

Sigurður said in a Facebook post that Hólmsheiði was designed as a remand prison and was poorly suited to long-term imprisonment. He said Margrét had effectively been held there since April 11, 2025.

He described limited opportunities for outdoor exercise, inadequate facilities for physical activity and little work for prisoners. Most of their time, he wrote, was spent looking at white walls or watching television. He said the conditions did not improve prisoners’ mental health or support rehabilitation, and that psychologists and mental health teams could not provide sufficient help.

Sigurður wrote the post as work began this week on a new prison at Stóra-Hraun. He said it was encouraging to hear the new director of prison services describe the support available to prisoners, but argued that such options did not appear to be available to people held on remand. He said Margrét’s request to move to Sogn, where she could have slightly more freedom, remained unanswered.

Margrét was sentenced to 16 years in prison by the Reykjanes District Court in December last year for killing her father and seriously assaulting her mother at the family home in Garðabær in April 2025. The Court of Appeal upheld the sentence on October 8. The judgment said she had subjected her parents to prolonged and serious violence before her father died.