Press release
Saving Iceland
April 20th

On Monday 21st April 2008 Saving Iceland Founder, Olafur Pall Sigurdson,
will appear before the District Court of East Iceland charged with
property damage. The charge relates to an incident at Snæfell Mountain
protest camp in the end of July 2006.

All the civilian witnesses recount that a police 4x4 was deliberately
driven into Sigurdsson at a potentially fatal speed. The driver, officer
8716 Arinbjorn Snorrason, a high ranking officer in charge of operations
at Kárahnjúkar, also attempted to run over other protestors on multiple
occasions that same summer, at Lindur (now submerged location of a SI
action camp) and at an action on Desjarárstífla dam construction site.

In the run up to the incident the police in the vehicle driven by
Snorrason had arrived at the camp in order to harass and provoke the
protestors. The police were photographing protestors from inside the
stationary vehicle as they queued up for lunch outside a kitchen tent. A
small group of people, including Sigurdsson, went towards the police
car. Suddenly and without warning Snorrason accelerated aggressively
towards Sigurdsson who stood in the road, hitting him. All who were
present were amazed that he survived the assault relatively unscathed.

Since the incident could realistically have cost him his life Sigurdsson
made a formal charge against the police. The State Prosecutor declared
half a year later that he saw no reason to allow this charge to go
further after talking to the police that were present. Despite several
civilian witnesses being willing to give evidence against the police,
they were never approached for statement. The State Prosecutor has
refused to take any action to investigate what could have lead to
Sigurdsson's death, except of course talking to the perpetrators, who
made a counter charge. Now, almost two years later, the case will be
heard at the District Court.

The demand is that Sigurdsson should pay a compensation for damage to
the vehicle (supposedly resulting from when it was driven into him), and
that he be punished according to law. When the incident took place
Sigurdsson was still legally bound by a suspended prison sentence for
splashing ‘skyr’ (a yogurt like liquid) with two other protestors over
delegates of an international aluminium conference that took place in
Reykjavik in June 2005. Consequently, if Sigurdsson is convicted of
damaging the police car, he could be imprisoned.

The protestors accuse the police of wanting to take revenge on Saving
Iceland. “This mix of personal malice and complete lack of respect for
the democratic right to protest is typical for the Icelandic police when
it comes to SI protestors.” says a spokesperson for Saving Iceland.

“Saving Iceland are of the opinion that this actual criminal act of the
police, intended to cause physical harm to Sigurdsson, has been allowed
by the State Prosecutor to be turned into a farcical political trial
disguised as a routine 'criminal damage' case. If this court case will
result in Sigurdsson having to serve time in prison he will clearly be
doing so as a political prisoner of the Icelandic State. Icelandic
authorities should not think that they will be allowed to keep such
scandalous abuse of justice secret from the international community.”

Additional background information

Earlier this year Thorsteinn Davidsson was appointed District Judge of
East Iceland, his father; David Oddsson (Former Prime Minister of long
standing and now Chairman of the National Bank) is widely considered to
be one of the masterminds behind the government’s heavy industry policy.
The appointment of Davidsson as District Judge caused huge waves of
indignation in Iceland and a hail of accusations of nepotism, even from
high places in the judicial system. “Perhaps sensing that the veneer of
respectability covering this blatant fit up is wearing too thin
Davidsson has stepped down as judge in Sigurdsson’s case.” said the SI
spokesperson.

Most people who were at any of the three different Saving Iceland camps
in the summer of 2006 have some anecdote about officer Snorrason.
Whether he attempted to run them over, slashed at their belongings with
a knife, cable tied them face down in the mud for hours or almost broke
their necks with a pair of bolt cutters. “Everyone remembers him as
dangerous and erratic.” said the spokesperson.

These are certainly not the first instances of reports about state
repression of Saving Iceland activists. Police have consistently entered
dwellings without warrants, used excessive force when arresting
protestors and on one occasion hospitalized Johann Axelsson, an elderly
professor who was a witness to an illegal arrest. Throughout the summers
of 2005 and 2006 marked and unmarked police cars tailed SI vehicles from
one side of the island to the other. In Reykjavik in August 2005, as
this surveillance continued, the Assistant Head of the State Police
categorically denied (in Frettabladid newspaper) that any activists were
under surveillance – that is until the police were caught out and filmed
(and televised) following Sigurdsson in his car around the same
roundabout several rounds by veteran TV reporter Omar Ragnarsson. In
2005 the Directorate of Immigration drew up a ‘blacklist’ of foreign
activists that police were to hunt down and deport, first the DoI denied
the existence of the list, then when proved not to be telling the truth;
admitted finally that the deportations attempts had no legal
foundations. More recently the police attempted to have environmental
scientist Miriam Rose deported, shortly after she had been made to serve
8 days imprisonment in the isolation unit of a men’s prison for her
involvement in opposing heavy industry projects, on the grounds that she
was ‘A serious threat to the fundamental values of society’.

These constant police violations of both international and Icelandic
laws regarding the rights of protestors have in this month (April)
prompted the Left Green Party to demand that the Minister of Justice
write a report about the conduct of the police against SI protestor. The
demand was voted in favor of in the Icelandic Parliament by an
overwhelming majority.

The case against Sigurdsson will commence on Monday at 13.00 hrs in room
101 at the Reykjavik District Court.