Words by

Andie Sophia Fontaine

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HMH

The District Prosecutor has formally charged a man in his fifties for murder, RÚV reports, by having thrown someone from a balcony in Reykjavík last December. In all, this marks three homicide cases in the Icelandic court system this year alone—highly unusual for Iceland—with another still being investigated.

Initially, five were arrested in connection with what at first appeared to be a falling death, but four of them were released soon afterwards. One suspect, the accused, remained in custody for further questioning while police conducted a detailed investigation of the scene. Forensic analysis concluded that it was virtually impossible that the victim fell of their own accord; that they were in all likelihood pushed. As such, charges were filed on June 3th, but have only been revealed now. The accused denies all culpability.

In point of fact, this is the third homicide case in Icelandic courts this year alone. Last June, a man in his sixties with charged for the murder of his spouse in Sandgerði at the end of March, and a man in Hafnarfjörður was charged with the murder of his mother in early April. In addition, there is one suspect in custody for arson with intent to harm for a fire that broke out in west Reykjavík last June.

If that last case ends in homicide charges, this will put the total number of homicides for the year, so far, at four. The last time there were four homicides for a single year in Iceland was in 2017, all of them high-profile cases. Typically, there are no more than one or two homicides in any given year in Iceland.

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