The Icelandic govern­ment has admitted to a violation aga­inst fourteen people in cases that have gone before the European Court of Human Rights. Frétta­blaðið first covered the verdict. Vil­hjálmur H. Vil­hjálms­son is the lawyer of most of the people. Each of the cases ends with the govern­ment’s declaration of infr­ingement, in addition to 4,000 EUR being paid to each of the plaintiffs in legal costs. Each per­son will also have the option of requesting the reo­pen­ing of their case before a reo­pen­ing court.

In addition to these fourteen plaintiffs, the govern­ment has settled cases with two more people. They are Atli Helgason, who wanted to regain his rights as a lawyer, which he lost when he was convicted of mans­laughter, and Gunn­laugur Briem, who was convicted of tax offenses.

What all these cases share, is that they were brought due to the illegal appoint­ment of judges at the Court of Appeals. There had been a rul­ing in each of the cases, by the then-illegal court.

Among the plaintiffs are Fjölnir Guð­steins­son and Eldin Skoko, both of whom were convicted of rape. Jens Guð­munds­son, for­mer investigat­ing police officer, was charged for work offence and Ottó Örn Þórð­ar­son for smuggl­ing amp­hetamine. Frétta­blaðið also reports that all the applicants now can dem­and read­mission of their cases. It is still unclear who among the plaintiffs intends to do so.

This article was orig­inally publ­is­hed in Icelandic by Katrín Heiða Guð­jóns­dóttir.