Reykjavík District Court announced its ruling in the case of the so-called Reykjavík 9 who were accused of having attacked the Icelandic parliament, Althingi, during protests in December 2008, this morning. Four defendants were found guilty and five were acquitted.

 Andri Leó Lemarquis was given a four-month conditional prison sentence, Thór Sigurdsson a 60-day conditional prison sentence and Sólveig Anna Jónsdóttir and Steinunn Gunnlaugsdóttir were each fined ISK 100,000 (USD 850, EUR 627) for their participation in the raid, visir.is reports.

Supreme Court lawyer Ragnar Adalsteinsson who represented four of the defendants told visir.is that the ruling is sad, expressing his view that it is regrettable that the first reaction of the courts and state prosecution to the banking collapse is to charge these people.

It is uncertain whether the ruling will be appealed to the Supreme Court.

A crowd of people had gathered at the District Court to follow the proceedings and some had to leave because the court room was full.
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A woman from Reykjanesbaer, southwest Iceland, who is in her late twenties, has been found guilty of libel in the case of Lúkas the dog, which was rumored to have been brutally killed but was later found alive near its home in Akureyri, north Iceland.

 Reykjanes District Court ruled that she is to pay Helgi Rafn Brynjarsson, the man she publicly accused of having killed the dog, ISK 700,000 (USD 5,900, EUR 4,400) in damages and legal costs, Fréttabladid reports.

Lúkas had disappeared from its home in early May 2007. Somehow the story got started that a group of visitors to the Car Days festival in Akureyri in June had put the dog in a sports bag and kicked it around until it died.

Rumor had it that the incident had been recorded and that the video showed Brynjarsson was the ringleader of the group. A number of people blogged about the alleged incident, calling Brynjarsson all sorts of names.

The blog entries caused Brynjarsson to be afraid to leave his house and he consequently lost his job, his lawyer, Arnar Kormákur Fridriksson, stated. About one month later, in mid-July, it turned out that Lúkas was alive and had been roaming the hills above town.

Two years afterwards, Brynjarsson sued one of the bloggers for libel, the woman from Reykjanesbaer. Two of her statements were deemed null and void: that Brynjarsson had committed “a despicable crime” and that the dog had “screamed inside the bag and the boy continued to kick it until it was clear that the dog had died.”

The court did not see reason to deem the comment that Brynjarsson was “a bloody loser” null and avoid, although it was considered distasteful and unreasonable. The woman also posted a picture of Brynjarsson on her blog.
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Customs officers found 500 portions of the erectile dysfunction medicine Kamagra in a container on board the transport vessel Arnarfell when it arrived to Reykjavík on Wednesday.

 The following day customs officers at Keflavík International Airport found 2,000 portions of the same drug in the luggage of an Icelander in his fifties returning from Thailand, Morgunbladid reports.

According to the Directorate of Customs, the import of Kamagra is a violation of medicine laws and will probably results in fines, not imprisonment

The drug has considerable street value; each portion of Kamagra and Viagra is sold for approximately ISK 4,500 (USD 38, EUR 28).

Senior customs officer at Keflavík Airport, Kári Gunnlaugsson, said the confiscation of erectile dysfunction medicine is not uncommon.

In related news, the airport’s customs officers have stopped four individuals trying to smuggle drugs into the country by carrying them inside their bodies so far this year; two men from Lithuania and two women, one from Denmark and one from Iceland.

They were carrying 357.8 grams of cocaine, 145.41 grams of amphetamines, 148.68 grams of crushed ecstasy pills in addition to half a gram of amphetamine and 98.31 grams of cocaine, respectively.
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 Jóhannsson goes on: “This performance is much better than anticipated in our original budget and also exceeds our last profit warning, which projected an EBITDA of ISK 11.5 billion.   The improved performance is primarily a result of the significant increase in Icelandair’s passenger revenues. The number of passengers in the North Atlantic market grew substantially, accounting for 38% of the company's total number of passengers, as compared to 28% in 2009. Also, the improved load factor and good revenue control increased passenger revenues. On top of that, it is satisfying to be able to report that most of our subsidiaries showed good results in 2010.

Secondly, the Company and its staff showed unprecedented resilience and nerve following the Eyjafjallajökull eruption last April. At the same time that virtually all airline communications in Europe were paralyzed for a week or so, we managed to maintain our schedule by transferring our hub to Glasgow and flying to Akureyri instead of Keflavik.  Even though the volcanic eruption proved expensive for the Company in the short term, it is my belief that the promotional value of the eruption for Iceland will, over the long term, result in an increase in the number of passengers visiting Iceland.

Finally, the financial restructuring of the Company was brought to a conclusion at the end of the year.     I am  very pleased with the results of that work. The restructuring was divided into three principal factors: an issue of new shares, a conversion of the debts to the company's largest creditors into shares, and a reduction in interest-bearing debt resulting from a sale of assets.   This resulted in an increased equity ratio from 16.4% at the end of 2009 to 33.7% at the end of 2010.
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