40-year-old Iceland murder case reopened?

Sævar Ciesielski, one of the convicted suspects, twice tried to …

Sævar Ciesielski, one of the convicted suspects, twice tried to have the case reopened. He died in 2011. Photo: Ásdís

The public prosecutor in charge of Iceland’s famous ‘Case of Guðmundur and Geirfinnur’ considers that there are grounds to reopen and retry the case.

Guðmundur Einarsson and Geirfinnur Einarsson were two young Icelandic men who disappeared in Iceland ten months apart in 1974 in mysterious circumstances. Despite the common surname, they were unrelated.

Six suspects for the murder of the two men were kept in solitary confinement and underwent heavy interrogation before signing confessions. They did not, however, have any clear memory of committing the crimes. Water torture was used on the supposed ringleader, who has since died. The case has captured the imagination of Icelanders for over forty years.

According to Ragn­ar Aðal­steins­son, lawyer of one of the suspects, the psychological assessment conducted on her client is one of the major factors motivating a possible reopening of the case.

The public prosecutor in charge of the case, Davíð Þór Björg­vins­son, presented his opinion on two of the six suspects to the relevant committee yesterday and findings on another three will be presented by 1 July. The committee is expected to rule on whether or not to reopen the case by the end of the year.

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