A suspect whose threats – via telephone and allegedly after twice breaking into the victims’ home – prompted a Cuban father and son to leave Iceland altogether has been released from police custody, and denies any racial motivation behind the attacks. A recording of one of the phone calls he made tells a different story.
As the Grapevine reported, the dispute began when the girlfriend of the seventeen-year-old son in the family had been receiving racist insults from classmates at secondary school in Kópavogur, told that she shouldn’t be dating outside her race. The matter escalated to the point where the family began receiving threats by phone and, allegedly on two separate occasions, broke into the family’s home to threaten them in person.
The suspect is now free from police custody, and denies the charges against him. His lawyer said that he has taken the matter to heart, and is personally offended at being called a racist.
However, recordings of one of the phone conversations that Vísir has made public demonstrate the suspect delivering his threats, peppering them with the word “negra” which, in Icelandic, means what you think it does.
The matter is still being investigated by the police.