Minister of Justice Áslaug Arna Sigurbjörnsdóttir has issued a reply to MP Andrés Ingi Jónsson’s inquiry, stating that the Ministry of Justice did not give US authorities any authority to create fake classified documents during their investigation of Julian Assange.
A story published in the Washington Post earlier this year alleged that US authorities had created fake classified documents with the agreement of the Icelandic government, to be fed to Assange, “including an ersatz map purporting to show the computer network topology of the government.” This happened close to a decade ago when the US was investigating Assange’s alleged crimes in Iceland.
Non-partisan MP Andrés Ingi Jónsson made a formal inquiry to the Minister of Justice when Parliament was in session in mid-January, asking if what was reported in the media were true, and if Iceland had authorised US authorities to create fake classified documents in connection with their investigation of Assange.
Áslaug Arna’s reply states that the Ministry’s only role when foreign countries request judicial assistance in criminal cases is to estimate if such requests fulfil legal requirements before passing them on to the proper institutions such as prosecutors or the police. The reply also states that the Ministry’s policy is not to comment on specific cases that are under investigation. “However, in light of the question, it was considered right to review all data in the ministry’s files concerning this incident. After reviewing the files, […], it can be declared that the Ministry gave no authorisations or permits to create fake classified documents in connection with the investigation in question.”
