A tool for rehabilitating criminals or simply a way of granting special favors?
In Iceland, a law that allows a murderer to become a lawyer or a pedophile a judge has led to the government’s downfall.
Known as “restored honor,” the legal procedure dating back to 1940 does not erase a convict’s criminal record, nor is it a pardon. It is intended to restore a convict’s civil rights and help them reintegrate into the community, but for most Icelanders, the law is obsolete, unjust and an example of the cronyism that has for too long poisoned politics on the small North Atlantic island.
Opposition to the law began to emerge after Robert Arni Hreidarsson, a former lawyer who was sentenced to three years in prison in 2007 for having sexually assaulted at least four teenage girls, had his “honor restored” in September last year.
One of his victims was the daughter of Bergur Thor Ingolfsson, a 48-year-old actor-director who has become a spokesman for the law’s opponents.
“I’m really, really proud of what we have done, to put a mirror in the face of the system and say: ‘Look at it, this is crazy,’” Ingolfsson said.
Over the past two decades, 86 convicts have applied to have their “honor restored,” according to the Icelandic Ministry of Justice. Thirty-two were approved.
“The spirit, the idea of the law was a pretty good thing, but we should put up more fences for people applying for high positions in society,” Ingolfsson said. “Child abusers should not automatically get high positions like police chief, lawyer or member of parliament.”
Icelandic prison sentences longer than four months bar convicts from standing for election, taking a seat on the board of a state-owned company and practicing law, among other things.
A request for “restored honor,” which is granted by the Icelandic president, must be accompanied by two letters of recommendation signed by upstanding members of the community.
The father of former Icelandic prime minister Bjarni Benediktsson, Benedikt Sveinsson, one of Iceland’s wealthiest and most influential businessmen, signed such a letter for a pedophile convicted in 2004 of having raped his stepdaughter almost daily for 12 years.
The name of the signatory had been kept from the media and the public, until a parliamentary commission ordered it be revealed.
Accused of having misled lawmakers and the public, and after a junior coalition member quit the government in protest, the prime minister resigned last month and called a snap election to be held today.
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