Three men on trial for assaulting a Greek tourist in downtown Reykjavík in spring 2010 denied their charges at trial yesterday, reports Fréttablaðið.
The three defendants, who are in their late twenties and early thirties, have since changed their testimonies.
In their police interviews shortly after the incident, they recalled the attack on the Greek tourist (or at least that a foreigner had been assaulted) but stated that they were not necessarily involved.
However, yesterday their testimonies clashed in many regards. According to eyewitnesses, three men fitting the description of the defendants had exited a car on Bankastræti and assaulted the Greek man, repeatedly kicking him in the head.
The defendants, in so far as they agreed on anything, admitted that they had gotten out of a vehicle on Bankastræti that night, but after that their stories diverge.
Two of them claimed not to have seen or heard anything beyond the regular hubbub of downtown Reykjavík. The third said that he and another of the defendants had been in a minor altercation with a foreigner, which had started when they tried to force the foreigner to have a drink of alcohol.
According to that testimony the foreigner had then fallen and cut his head open. The foreigner then tried to kick the defendant, who got back into the car the three had gotten out of.
The proceedings continue today.
As well as the criminal trial, a private lawsuit by the Greek man against the three defendants, demanding damages of 1226000 ISK, is still making its way through the Icelandic judicial system.
On December 14 2011 the Greek man, who was in his early thirties, passed away in Italy. No reports indicating a link between the two cases have appeared. The prosecutor, Kolbrún Benediktsdóttir, said that the only information Icelandic authorities had received was that the death was being investigated by Italian authorities.
—–
Buy subscriptions, t-shirts and more from our shop right here!
