Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Support the Reykjavik 9

suuporter | 14.09.2010 10:26 | Globalisation | Repression | Social Struggles

As we speak, Iceland’s first post-collapse trial is taking place. To no-one’s surprise, the accused are individuals from the most radical part of the uprising that toppled Iceland’s government during the winter of 2008 and 2009. The people – anarchists and radical leftists – are now facing somewhere between 1 and 16 years in prison, will they be found guilty of attacking the parliament.



On December 8th 2008, a group of 30 people planned to enter the Parliament gallery but was met with a tough response from the Parliament’s guards. According to Iceland’s constitution, everybody can enter the Parliament gallery to follow parliamentary sessions. Therefore it was not only their natural right, as the opponents of current powers, to enter there – but also their legal, constitutional right as members of this society. Only 2 out of the 30 people managed to get there; one of them shouted at the MP’s to get out of the building. In reaction, the people were held hostage by police and Parliament guards, few of them arrested and brought to the police station. A year later, accusations were filed against 9 of them.

Between One and Sixteen Year in Prison The Reykjavík Nine (Rvk9) are accused of violating the government authorities, disrupting public order, committing and threatening violence against official workers, leading an organized attack, housebreaking, disrupting a legal meeting and last but not least, threatening the Parliament’s free will. The last mentioned law article – which takes on attacking the Parliament and demands somewhere between 1 and 16 years prison sentence – has been used only once before in the history of the Icelandic state. That was in 1949 when the police and right wing extremists beat up people who rioted by the parliament, protesting Iceland’s entrance into NATO. Of course, it were the NATO opponents who got sentenced, including an official deprivation of their human rights.

Since the court case was originally filed in January this year, many hearings have taken place. One of the Rvk9’s lawyers has systematically shown the witch-hunting nature of the case, as well as the police’s and judge’s favoritism. Of course that should be obvious to everyone with a critical mind. But if anyone still had doubts about it, the lawyer and other opponents of the Rvk9 case have very well exposed the false neutrality of the state institutions.

A big group of policemen have been present in the courthouse at every hearing, by the demand of the judge and chief judge. Looking back to the history of court cases in Iceland, this police presence is unique and shows the judge’s assumption about the threat caused by the defendants and their supporters. Thus he has already taken a stand. Early on, the police stayed behind the curtains but parallel to the public increased interest in the case, the judge and chief judge have handed the authority of the trials to the police. The police has therefore guarded the doors to the courtroom and only allowed entrance to as many people as there are chairs in the room. Later on, the police has formed a wall in front of the courthouse itself and only allowed a handful of people inside. Couple of the defendants have undergone violence and had problems with entering. In one instance, two of them were not allowed into their own trials and despite repeated demands, the judge has not secured that this will not happen again. The police presence has only thrown oil on the fire of rage against the trials, which has resulted in rioting and several arrests.

The silence of the corporate media has of course played its part in the case – actually since the original event and arrests happened in December 2008 – which is to sentence the Rvk9 beforehand and create a negative public opinion. The case’s opponents have on the other hand managed to show the absurdity of the trials and the witch-hunting nature of it, by pointing at the zero gravity of the accusations and by putting the events in context with the 2008-2009 revolt and that time’s social conditions. The judicial system’s one-sided aim has been properly exposed.

The criticism has been pointed towards the roots of the case – the hierarchy of the so-called democratic society – and its opponents have increased. That was seen in the signatures of more then 700 people who announced that they had also “attacked” the parliament that same winter and demanded that the case would be dismissed. The media editors’ reaction to this progress has only been shown in one way, with bitter silence. Now they only talk about the case to bring forward lies, purposely to criminalize the defendants and their supporters.

But the media is not the only one who keeps silent. The first agent of this case, parliament itself, has shut its mouth – at least on the official side. Thus the parliament’s speaker refused to accept the 700 signatures and said that the case and the signatures had nothing to do with her job. Still, she saw nothing wrong with contacting a well known philosopher who had voiced his opinion about the court case in a radio show, ticking him off and accusing him of misstatements. Asked about her interference, she did not want to answer and the same has applied to the reaction of any spokesperson of the parliament and or the prosecution, when asked critical questions.

Increased Support and Solidarity The media’s and authorities’ attempts to silence the resistance and create as negative impression as possible of the defendants, has not gone down very well with the public. In May, many well known and mainstream musicians played on a big outdoor concert in support of the Rvk9. The concert took place on the square in front of parliament, the same as where the 1949 NATO riots and the 2008-2009 protests took place. In July, a similar event took place in Reykjavík’s Living Art Museum, where many artists showed their objection to the prosecution and Iceland’s state. The support, which comes from many different directions of society, has not dwindled despite the Rvk9’s and their supporters’ radical criticism and analysis of the system. It has rather increased and gotten beyond Iceland’s borders, which could e.g. been seen in a big solidarity protest by Iceland’s consulate in Barcelona, July this year.

In the end of August, four of the defendants demanded that the judge would resign because of the favoritism and subjectivity mentioned here above. The judge pronounced his own qualification and few days later, the supreme court confirmed his decisions, despite the heavyweight reasoning of the defendant’s lawyer. During last hearing, September 8th, the same defendants demanded that the state prosecutor would resign because of her close connections with the “victim”, but she serves a job for the parliament, within the Central Bank. The verdict on that will be announced soon and by that time, the principal proceedings will start if the demands will not be met.

The Rvk9 and their supporters need all forms of international solidarity, be it articles and translations, spreading the word, demonstrations or any other ways to show an opposition to Iceland’s state repression. A list of Iceland’s embassies abroad can be found on the web of Iceland’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs.

suuporter
- Homepage: http://www.rvk9.org

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech