Greenlander Thomas Møller Olsen has been sentenced to 19 years in prison for the murder of Birna Brjánsdóttir, as well as the attempted smuggle of 20 kg of hashish. The judgment was rendered in the district court of Reykjanes, South Iceland.
Olsen will also have to pay Birna’s parents approximately 29 million krona ($ 271917.49) in legal costs and settlement. It is currently unclear whether the case will be appealed to the Supreme Court.
The penalty framework for manslaughter in Iceland is life imprisonment, although sentences almost never surpass 16 years in prison. The smuggling of drugs is punishable by up to 12 years.
The twenty-year-old Birna Brjánsdóttir disappeared on Saturday morning, January 14th, after a night out. The case shook the entire Icelandic nation, prompting the most extensive search in Iceland’s history, involving over eight hundred people.
Eight days after her disappearance, Birna’s body was found naked on the beach near Selvogsviti lighthouse, on the Reykjanes peninsula in South-West Iceland.
The charges laid against Olsen accuse him of having attacked Birna in a red Kio Rio rental car near a pontoon at Hafnarfjörður harbor. He is accused of hitting her repeatedly in the face and head, as well as taking her by the neck and applying strong force, before tossing her into the ocean where she drowned.
