The head of Europol’s economic crime department has a meeting scheduled with Iceland’s special prosecutor, who is responsible for investigating the banking collapse, today. They will discuss potential cooperation on the investigation.
Copyright: Icelandic Photo Agency.
First Arnar Jensson, Iceland’s permanent representative at Europol, and Carlo van Heuckelom, who heads its economic crime department, will meet with Iceland’s Minister of Justice Ragna Árnadóttir and the ministry’s employees to discuss the freezing of assets, Fréttabladid reports.
European legislation in this field will be reviewed and possible improvement for Icelandic legislation proposed. This topic will also be discussed at the meeting with the special prosecutor, Ólafur Thór Hauksson, in addition to potential partnership.
“They have extensive knowledge that we could definitely benefit from,” Hauksson said, without revealing where his investigation is headed.
Later this week, the special prosecutor will meet with his advisors, French-Norwegian magistrate Eva Joly, Helge Skogseth Berg from Norway and Jean-Michel Matt from France, on the investigation’s progress.
The special prosecutor’s office is currently investigating 36 cases. Today the deadline for applying for the position as assistant to the special prosecutor expires; three other prosecutors will be hired to the office, each of whom will be in charge of investigating one of the three commercial banks that collapsed last fall.
The position of special prosecutor was not sought-after; it had to be advertised twice, but, according to Minister Árnadóttir, that is not the case now. She said a number of applications have been received and that their number may increase further.
Click here to read more about the office of the special prosecutor.
