The State Prosecutor has reached a decision: the Interior Ministry will be investigated by the police in connection with a leaked memo which impugned the reputation of a Nigerian asylum seeker.
In a statement posted on the State Prosecutor’s webpage, the office says: “The State Prosecutor has filed charges, along with documents which accompanied the charges and documents from the Ministry of the Interior, with the office of the Police Commissioner of the Greater Reykjavík Area for appropriate treatment.”
The Minister of the Interior, Hanna Birna Kristjánsdóttir, has more than an official connection with this particular commissioner office – her brother, Theódór Kristjánsson, is the assistant commissioner, and is also running for Mosfellsbær town council for the Independence Party, the party from which the minister herself hails.
Hanna Birna told RÚV that she is “completely satisfied” with the decision, and welcomes the police to “review [the case] as comprehensively as possible.”
As reported, a memo which was leaked to select members of the press last Novermber impugned the reputations of Nigerian asylum seeker Tony Omos and the mother of his child, Evelyn Glory Joseph, with allegations which later proved untrue.
Lawyers for both Tony and Evelyn filed charges against the ministry, included breach of confidentiality, slander, and abuse of public office. The ministry has insisted that they conducted their own investigation into the matter, and concluded that the memo did not leak from the ministry – despite the fact that all evidence points to the ministry as the sole source.
More backstory on the case can be found here.
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