Vice-State Prosecutor Helgi Magnús Gunnarsson has appealed Reykjavík District Court’s verdict over Agné Krataviciuté, who was sentenced to two years in prison in March for taking the life of her newborn son in July 2011. A stricter verdict is demanded.
From Laugavegur, where the hotel Krataviciuté worked at is located. Archive photo by Páll Stefánsson.
According to visir.is, the State Prosecutor’s Office demanded Krataviciuté be found guilty of manslaughter but she was acquitted of those charges. Instead she was convicted for violating the 212th article of the penal code, which reads as follows:
“If a mother kills her baby during birth or straight after and it can be assumed that she did so because of distress, fear of reproach, or due to an ill or disturbed frame of mind caused by the process of birth, she is to be imprisoned for up to six years.”
Krataviciuté is said to have inflicted cuts to the infant’s face and placed his body in the garbage storage of a hotel in Reykjavík where she worked as a cleaner.
She is to pay her child’s father ISK 600,000 (USD 4,700, EUR 3,700) in damages. The time she has spent in custody will be subtracted from her sentence.
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