Minister of the Interior Hanna Birna Kristjánsdóttir has come up with a new defence for how she interacted with the former police commissioner which legal experts say is completely wrong.
RÚV reports that the Minister has issued another defence of her interactions with former Commissioner of the Capital Area Police Stefán Eiríksson. These interactions included questioning the speed of the investigations of her ministry, the security of Ministry documents, and even threatening to launch an investigation of her own against the police.
While Hanna Birna initially said these actions were all a part of a natural relationship between herself and the Commissioner, she now contends that they do not constitute interfering with a police investigation for one simple reason: Stefán, she says, was not in charge of the investigations; the State Prosecutor was.
However, State Prosecutor Sigríður Friðjónsdóttir told RÚV that while her office does manage investigations in general, Stefán was indeed put in charge of investigating the Interior Ministry.
Legal experts RÚV spoke with argued furthermore that Hanna Birna’s new defence is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of criminal law, and is a gross oversimplification. To contend that the Commissioner of the police was not a part of police investigations is simply not true, they said.
Hanna Birna would not respond to questions from RÚV.
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