According to a statement released by the Director of Public Prosecutions and National Commissioner of the Icelandic Police yesterday, Icelandic authorities were consulted about the visit of the FBI before the agents arrived in the country, ruv.is reports.
Alþingi, the Icelandic parliament. Photo: Páll Stefánsson/Iceland Review.
Last week it was reported that a group of FBI agents arrived in Iceland in August 2011, requesting collaboration with Icelandic police authorities to investigate WikiLeaks. According to yesterday’s statement, the FBI arrived in Iceland to investigate an impending computer attack on the government offices of Iceland.
Wikileaks spokesperson Kristinn Hrafnsson told RÚV last week that the Minister of the Interior, Ögmundur Jónasson, had not received notification of the visit beforehand. Kristinn said that Ögmundur had reacted angrily to their arrival and rejected their request for assistance in investigating a matter in the country on the basis that foreign police forces do not have the authority to do so. Ögmundur confirmed that he was not aware of the visit.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Össur Skarphéðinsson also maintains that the FBI arrived in the country without permission and without the knowledge of the Icelandic government, visir.is reports. Össur rejects the explanation of the Icelandic police that there was a connection between the visit of the FBI agents and a separate visit of FBI experts a month earlier to investigate an impending computer attack.
Ögmundur Jónasson is currently on an official visit to China and was not reachable for comment.
Click here to read more about this story.
ZR
