Two capital area police officers are under investigation for brutality during an arrest which left one man with a double leg fracture in May, Vísir reports. Charges have been brought against both officers.
The arrest in question took place at a hamburger shop in the town of Kópavogur, just outside of Reykjavík. Police were called to the scene regarding two men who entered the shop acting drunk and disorderly around dinnertime. According to witnesses, there was a struggle after one of the men refused to provide an ID and both men, who are Polish, said that they did not understand Icelandic. The officers are said to have responded violently after one of them was pushed, beating one of the men with their batons where he lay on the ground, before pushing the other harshly into a police car and slamming the door on his legs in the process.
District Prosecutor Kolbrún Benediktsdóttir confirmed that both officers, a man and a woman, are under investigation for their actions during the arrest. The two men have also been charged with ‘offenses against authorities,’ which includes “acts of violence, or threats of violence, against public employees in the course of their work and other attempts to obstruct, intimidate or influence public employees.” Reykjavík Chief of Police Sigríður Björk Guðjónsdóttir confirmed that neither officer has been placed on leave.
