Tony Omos Receives Settlement In Leak Case

Asylum seeker Tony Omos was awarded restitution for damages caused by a memo which was leaked illegally from the Interior Ministry in 2013.

Stundin reports that while the full amount awarded has not been disclosed, Tony sought 5 million ISK in damages, and sources close to Stundin say he was awarded about one million.

“It’s good that the part of this story regarding [former Interior Minister assistant] Gísli Freyr [Valdórsson] is over,” Tony’s lawyer, Stefán Karl Kristjánsson, told reporters.

It is likely that Tony will also seek damages from the Icelandic government, although a formal decision has not yet been taken.

The news comes about a month after the mother of his child, Evelyn Glory Joseph – who is still in Iceland, while Tony is still in Italy – was also awarded damages for the leak.

Evelyn and Tony originally sought restitution for violation of privacy in the wake of a memo leaked to the press in November 2013, which named them and levelled accusations that they have categorically denied, and which turned out to be false or misleading. It then came to light that the memo originated in the Ministry of the Interior and, last November, Gísli Freyr confessed to having created the memo himself.

Shortly thereafter, Minister of the Interior Hanna Birna Kristjánsdóttir resigned from her post. Gísli was sentenced to an eight-month probationary sentence.