Amongst those that the two men currently in police custody under suspicion of conspiring to commit a terrorist attack had discussed targeting were Efling director Sólveig Anna Jónsdóttir and Socialist Party managing director Gunnar Smári Egilsson, the website Samstöðin reports.
This was brought to light after the District Prosecutor began calling in people that the two suspects had, in their communications, discussed harming or killing. The suspects had reportedly discussed killing both Sólveig Anna and Gunnar Smári. In their communications, they had called Sólveig Anna a “commie rag” who was aiming to foment a revolution and needed to be killed one day. Of Gunnar Smári, one suspect told the other that he was at the same bar as him, saying Gunnar Smári was unarmed, and wondered what would happen if he killed him where he stood.
Their targets may have extended further than this, as RÚV reports that Pirate Party MP Björn Leví Gunnarsson, and two former Pirate Party MPs–Helgi Hrafn Gunnarsson and Smári McCarthy–were also called in for questioning regarding the case. While they confirmed that they had been asked to review communications between the suspects on Signal, they would not disclose any details of what these communications entailed.
RÚV also reports that the Appellate Court has shortened the custody times for these suspects, which was confirmed by both Ómar Örn Bjarnþórsson and Einar Oddur Sigurðsson, lawyers for the suspects. Karl Ingi Vilbergsson, a prosecutor at the District Prosecutor’s office, would not comment on why their custody times were shortened.
As reported, the two men were arrested in late September and found to be in possession of dozens of firearms and hundreds of rounds of ammunition, including a small portion of 3D printed guns. While almost all of these weapons are legally registered in Iceland, police said that they had been investigating these two for weeks. They are still investigating any possible ties to far-right organisations abroad, although lawyers for the suspects say they know of no such links, and none have as yet been discovered.
As it stands now, the situation has prompted Minister of Justice Jón Gunnarsson to plan to submit a bill which would grant the police powers of “pre-emptive investigation” if passed. He is also planning to give police the power to carry tasers. While both of these measures have been proposed to Parliament in the past, they have typically been hotly resisted. Whether they will pass this time remains to be seen.
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