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Out of Thin Air: Murder in Iceland

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This film contains some strong language

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When I remember things...

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..it's not just some kind of mathematical machine in my head.

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It is contaminated in terms of facts.

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It's mixed with desires, with fears.

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Memory is such a fickle thing.

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Every Icelander knows about this case.

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It's the biggest criminal case of the last century.

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It was such torture, because I was this guilty person...

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..and I had never really connected with the actual memory

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of any of it happening.

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When I was growing up in Reykjavik, it was a small-town community.

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It felt almost like one family because everyone is related.

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In '74, there were probably 220,000 people.

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Iceland was a village, and you still knew most everyone.

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MUSIC PLAYS

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We didn't have so much experience of the outer world.

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It was a safe community.

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There was very little crime.

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It was a state of innocence, really.

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And authorities were something everybody trusted -

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and newspapers, they don't lie -

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and that's what people had here.

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They trusted that everything was the way it seemed.

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It was a time here in Iceland where there was a lot of changes,

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and I remember my parents' generation was quite nervous

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of what on Earth was going on...

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and I felt like I was with the crowd

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that really had an understanding of life.

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Hippies didn't respect rules, they didn't respect law.

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People would be smoking hash and discussing politics,

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and I was soaking up everything they said like a sponge.

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At these parties where everybody's passing the pipe, there he is -

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and I was wondering, "Who's this guy?"

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And somebody said, "That's Saevar Ciesielski."

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Saevar had a foreign look, most definitely.

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He had this dark hair and he had these Slavic eyes -

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and the other thing about him was he was so mysterious.

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There was always this mythology around Ciesielski.

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The story was that he had this group of thugs around him.

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They came from broken homes, they had left school early.

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These kids were in trouble from, basically, the day they were born.

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LSD had entered the picture, and on one of these occasions,

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this party is going on and we're just drinking Coke or something,

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and then all of a sudden,

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I start feeling like I'm getting high

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until I realised I am actually high on LSD.

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So I started looking for a corner, somewhere where I could hide...

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..and then I stumble on something, and it's Saevar,

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and then he tells me somebody must have put LSD in my drink.

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So we were just going to hang on to each other through this.

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We talked about our view of life, innermost pain,

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everything there was to know about each other.

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I felt like I had met one of the most incredible human beings ever...

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..and he felt the same way, you know.

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After that night, there was no other way to go forward but together.

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The weather changes very quickly here in Iceland.

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Sometimes you have a good sunny day in the morning,

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but at noon you have heavy snow.

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Some people don't understand how quickly the weather changes,

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and get lost.

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Gudmundur disappeared on Saturday night, 27th of January...

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..and on Tuesday, there was a big call for rescue teams for a search.

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There was about 200 people looking, and we searched until dark.

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At that time, there was no thought about this was a crime,

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or something like that, because in those days it happened very often

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that people got lost in the lava.

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It was a nice summer. Good weather for weeks on end.

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My family was very upset about my relationship with Saevar,

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because they had been told that he was, you know,

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a dangerous guy because he was selling drugs...

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..and so I was out of my relationship with my family

0:11:190:11:23

because of him,

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and he did have a hold on me.

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I felt privileged to be considered OK by him.

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Saevar had this desire to commit some kind of a crime

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that he would get away with

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and leave authorities just tearing their hair out

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cos they couldn't prove anything.

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As I was working for the telephone company,

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I came up with this embezzlement that we eventually committed.

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What we had to do was tamper with the telephones

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to make it sound like we were calling long-distance.

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I called the office where I worked and I said, "I have a postal order,"

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and so it gets processed,

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and sent from there to the main post office downtown...

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..and then I go to the post office

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and I tell them I'm here to pick up the postal order.

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I was so scared.

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I felt like, "I'm going to get caught."

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The amount that we embezzled was just under a million krona...

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..and I became pretty confident that they would never find out.

0:13:040:13:09

"Boy, are they going to be pissed off!

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"We got 'em!"

0:13:110:13:13

That whole chain of events

0:13:360:13:39

was so mysterious

0:13:390:13:41

that we immediately thought,

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"This is a murder inquiry."

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Witnesses remember that a man came into the cafe

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and he asked to use the phone.

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This was about the same time as Geirfinnur got his phone call.

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PHONE RINGS

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Hallo?

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HE SPEAKS IN ICELANDIC

0:14:130:14:17

Ja?

0:14:220:14:23

He was a good man, had no enemies.

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It was unlike him to disappear like that.

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There were searching teams all over.

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The dogs, the divers in the harbour, everything was done.

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An artist in Keflavik came up with an idea to make a clay statue

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of the suspect, and the reaction was overwhelming in the whole society.

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No body was found, so we were totally at a blank end.

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Very early on,

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I got the sense that something going on here

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that's not going to end well.

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Ah... And it turned out, didn't end well.

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Our daughter was born here in Reykjavik

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on the 24th of September, 1975.

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Saevar was present at the birth, and very excited.

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After she was born,

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I had one focus in my life,

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and that was to be a perfect mother for this child.

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I would sacrifice anything -

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and I was really upset with Saevar's way of life at that point.

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I had told him, "I don't want this any more.

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"I just want to have a normal life in the daylight, nothing to hide."

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I was 20 years old, and I was so naive.

0:17:510:17:56

Saevar and his friends were known to the police.

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They were part of some kind of a criminal underworld.

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Most of them had been in prison for petty crime, thievery.

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They were violent.

0:18:150:18:17

This was a nasty group of kids.

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When they came to arrest me,

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they surrounded this big building as if they were arresting terrorists.

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All I could do was call my sister.

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So she came around and took the baby.

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I remember getting in a car.

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Glimpses where I'm just really scared...

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and I remember trying to tell them

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I can't be here for a long time, because the baby needs me.

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They took me to this prison...

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..and then I was locked up in this cell.

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The next day, they spoke to me

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and explained that I was now going to be held in custody for 30 days

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on suspicion of the embezzlement.

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I just broke down and couldn't handle that reality.

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What about the baby?

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And then they just sent me back to my cell

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and then left me there for six days and nights.

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During the questioning about the embezzlement,

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they told me that Saevar had been very clear

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that I had been entirely on my own doing that,

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and they told me, "You need to realise that Saevar

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"is a really rotten human being to the core.

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"There is no redemption for him."

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I was really shocked

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that Saevar would betray me that way,

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but he had betrayed me in terms of other girls,

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so it was easier for me to believe them.

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Eventually, I decided to tell them everything,

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not just the embezzlement,

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but anything illegal that I was aware of.

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And what a relief!

0:21:020:21:05

It was the end of an era and a beginning of a life.

0:21:060:21:11

These guys had actually helped me.

0:21:130:21:16

And then one of them says, "Oh, by the way,

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"one other thing we want to ask you.

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"Do you know a guy by the name of Gudmundur Einarsson?"

0:21:320:21:35

And then he shows me a photograph.

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I said, "Yeah, I've seen this guy.

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"Years ago at my girlfriend's house, she had a school party.

0:21:410:21:45

"I remember him because he was a really nice guy" -

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and that was it.

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"Are you sure?"

0:21:500:21:51

"Yeah. Yeah. I don't remember ever seeing him after that."

0:21:510:21:54

THEY SPEAK IN ICELANDIC

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During that case, I think it was Erla who started to tell them

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about things that had happened the year before.

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This was a long questioning.

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It was hours -

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and during that whole process they got closer and closer

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to talking about the weekend when this boy disappeared.

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Somehow it got down to me telling them that I had had a nightmare.

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The weather that night was crazy.

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It would just howl like a wolf.

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In an old house like that, you feel like the house is moving.

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Then I hear some whispering.

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There were people outside my window...

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..and these were violent people..

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and I became aware that they're whispering,

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wondering if I'm awake or not.

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I feel like I'm in this corner - I can't go anywhere...

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..and then I wake up.

0:23:410:23:44

After all this questioning,

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the chief of the investigation leans over and he says,

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"Something terrible happened that night in that apartment,

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"you witnessed it,

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"and you cannot recall because of the trauma it caused you.

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"So what we want to do now is you go back to your cell

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"and you try as much as you can to remember,

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"and then we will be back and talk about it some more."

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I remember lying there thinking about that night.

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My head was full of pictures...

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..and I wondered,

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"Was that nightmare maybe something that really did happen?"

0:24:570:25:01

That I woke up...

0:25:050:25:08

..got out of bed...

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..and saw them.

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I saw Saevar and Kristjan and a third person I didn't recognise,

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carrying something heavy.

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I didn't see what was in the sheet, but I was sure that it was a body.

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I couldn't move.

0:25:400:25:41

I was cold, but at the same time I felt like I was sweating.

0:25:410:25:46

Later, Saevar took me by the arms and put me to bed.

0:25:470:25:51

I said I was going to deny everything.

0:25:520:25:55

Gudmundur disappears in January '74,

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and she made this confession December '75.

0:26:080:26:11

So it's already two years.

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We searched the flat but there was not much evidence on the scene.

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No DNA, nothing of the sort.

0:26:210:26:24

PHONE RINGS

0:26:270:26:29

Hallo?

0:26:330:26:36

After I was released, they called me and they tell me,

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"We have questioned Saevar..."

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Hm.

0:26:420:26:43

"..and we just want to let you know

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"that his testimony is in line with yours in detail."

0:26:470:26:52

December 22, 1975.

0:26:590:27:02

Saevar said that Gudmundur, Kristjan and Tryggvi

0:27:020:27:05

had all come to the apartment during the night in late January 1974.

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An argument had ended in Gudmundur's death.

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Saevar had called his friend Albert

0:27:160:27:18

and asked him to come in his father's car.

0:27:180:27:22

It was half past 11 in the evening.

0:27:220:27:25

Kristjan called and he said, "They are accusing me of murder."

0:27:250:27:29

Kristjan then met the other guys, and something had happened.

0:27:310:27:35

I can't clearly remember the events of that night...

0:27:370:27:40

..I was under the influence of alcohol...

0:27:410:27:44

but all I'm going to tell you, I think I remember with certainty.

0:27:440:27:47

There was a fight in the apartment, and I'm sure I took no part in it.

0:27:490:27:53

There was some disagreement,

0:27:550:27:57

I'm sure between Kristjan and the man with no name.

0:27:570:28:01

It started by them cursing each other, but ended in a fight.

0:28:030:28:08

Then the man hit me and I think I hit him, and he fell to the floor.

0:28:080:28:13

Then I saw Saevar kick him in the head.

0:28:130:28:16

The next thing I remember is that Albert's car was at the house.

0:28:250:28:28

Saevar, Kristjan and Tryggvi approached the vehicle.

0:28:280:28:32

I saw that all three carried something that look like a bag.

0:28:330:28:37

Saevar told me where to drive.

0:28:380:28:41

On the way back, Saevar and I discussed what was in the bag.

0:28:440:28:48

Saevar then clearly told me that it contained a corpse.

0:28:480:28:52

The police had told me that when they were trying

0:28:560:28:59

to figure out what had been done with the body,

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they had to cut it all up into pieces

0:29:020:29:05

and carry it out in plastic bags.

0:29:050:29:07

My mind was getting really worked,

0:29:090:29:11

and it felt to me like all this had

0:29:110:29:13

been going on with me completely unaware,

0:29:130:29:16

and that these guys had been butchers of people.

0:29:160:29:19

I was picturing him when he's holding the baby...

0:29:230:29:28

The smile was just an act, or...

0:29:280:29:31

Everything.

0:29:310:29:33

Everything becomes questionable.

0:29:330:29:36

The next thing that happened is in early 1976.

0:30:160:30:20

Police is still investigating Saevar and Erla about Gudmundur.

0:30:200:30:25

They mention also Geirfinnur.

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The police always stayed in touch with me...

0:30:330:30:35

..and with my social situation where I was so isolated,

0:30:370:30:42

these were the only friends in the world that I had,

0:30:420:30:46

and they became very important to me...

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and at some point,

0:30:490:30:50

the talk starts getting to the disappearance of Geirfinnur...

0:30:500:30:54

..and he asked me point blank,

0:30:550:30:58

"Do you think that Saevar knows something

0:30:580:31:01

"about what happened to him?"

0:31:010:31:02

The thing about Geirfinnur was that he was never found,

0:31:100:31:13

so it was suspicious from the start.

0:31:130:31:16

Then they started some rumours and some conspiracy theories.

0:31:180:31:22

There was all these rumours going on

0:31:230:31:25

that there might have been connection

0:31:250:31:27

between the disappearance of Geirfinnur

0:31:270:31:29

and people running a particular discotheque.

0:31:290:31:33

There was always a lot of smuggled alcohol around then.

0:31:330:31:36

The rumour was that some of the clubs

0:31:360:31:39

would get their alcohol from that source...

0:31:390:31:42

..so, maybe this guy Geirfinnur got caught up in smuggling.

0:31:440:31:49

We drove from the city and headed to Keflavik.

0:31:540:31:58

Saevar held my hand the whole time, like he didn't want to let go.

0:31:590:32:04

The car stopped close to the sea.

0:32:070:32:09

Basically, Geirfinnur had been hired to pick up big plastic containers

0:32:220:32:27

of alcohol that were being smuggled into the country...

0:32:270:32:30

..and then there had been a quarrel,

0:32:390:32:42

and he had died because of all of that.

0:32:420:32:45

For the village of Iceland,

0:33:130:33:15

this was - you know, this was shocking.

0:33:150:33:17

It was the biggest story to hit the population for years and years.

0:33:180:33:24

The perception was that this was organised crime

0:33:320:33:36

tied in with people in the highest places.

0:33:360:33:39

The gossip was that the Progressive Party

0:33:390:33:43

had been involved in all the smuggling.

0:33:430:33:47

And the chairman of the Progressive Party was the Minister of Justice,

0:33:470:33:51

so this was a big scandal.

0:33:510:33:53

It was really the beginning of...

0:34:160:34:17

I would call it public hysteria.

0:34:170:34:20

We had a killer gang amongst us, two times murderers.

0:34:200:34:26

Where was the police?

0:34:260:34:28

How could this have happened?

0:34:280:34:30

And of course in this little close-knit community,

0:34:300:34:33

everyone was talking about this.

0:34:330:34:35

What's really going on in this kind of society?

0:34:350:34:42

In a way, we lost our innocence, we lost our security -

0:34:420:34:47

and all of a sudden the big bad world was knocking at our door.

0:34:470:34:52

Then in early May '76, all of the sudden these four men are released.

0:35:000:35:05

Turns out that the investigation produced nothing.

0:35:050:35:10

Saevar and the gang, they made up this story.

0:35:100:35:13

It took the police three months to figure out that this was..

0:35:130:35:16

..all the time was a total lie.

0:35:170:35:20

During the summer of 1976,

0:35:250:35:28

I was a detective with that same force investigating these two cases.

0:35:280:35:32

What I saw is that the police were under incredible pressure

0:35:340:35:37

to solve these cases.

0:35:370:35:39

The atmosphere was tense, like a panic.

0:35:490:35:54

The message that was being communicated

0:35:540:35:57

was all of these people,

0:35:570:35:59

they're playing games, they're not cooperating.

0:35:590:36:03

The police was in a very, very bad situation.

0:36:030:36:06

Even after they have confessed killing Geirfinnur,

0:36:060:36:09

they are still changing their story about how he died...

0:36:090:36:12

..and the police didn't have the bodies.

0:36:180:36:21

They had only the statements from these people.

0:36:210:36:25

HE SHOUTS IN ICELANDIC

0:36:270:36:29

Saevar put the rifle in my hands and stood next to me.

0:36:370:36:41

I was so close to the guy that I could see his face.

0:36:420:36:45

He seemed to realise what was happening to him,

0:36:460:36:49

and there was panic in his eyes.

0:36:490:36:52

The investigation had been going on for a long time.

0:37:050:37:09

It didn't seem to be going very well.

0:37:090:37:13

The police had not experienced a case like that.

0:37:150:37:19

I mean, two murders.

0:37:190:37:21

The public was demanding

0:37:230:37:25

that the police would come up with a solution.

0:37:250:37:28

Find the guilty persons.

0:37:280:37:30

The minister of justice is getting anxious.

0:37:300:37:33

He's responsible for the whole thing,

0:37:330:37:35

so he uses his influence, and soon after, this guy Schutz shows up.

0:37:350:37:43

He was head of the West German security police.

0:37:430:37:47

We thought, "Well, this seems to be, you know, the real McCoy."

0:37:480:37:53

Karl Schutz sets up a task force of seven police officers,

0:37:550:37:59

and there were three interpreters, and the investigating judge -

0:37:590:38:03

and he was quite a hard task master.

0:38:030:38:06

The focus was very much, "We've got to find the bodies."

0:38:080:38:12

There were an enormous amount of searches

0:38:130:38:16

for Gudmundur and Geirfinnur's bodies.

0:38:160:38:19

Karl Schutz spent months studying the case

0:38:250:38:29

and trying to understand it...

0:38:290:38:31

..and he was also interviewing the suspects through an interpreter.

0:38:370:38:42

The focus was on who was the driver

0:38:440:38:46

who took the gang to meet Geirfinnur.

0:38:460:38:50

They had to find somebody who could have driven the car,

0:38:510:38:56

and somebody they all knew,

0:38:560:38:59

and there was I.

0:38:590:39:02

Gudjon was different to the others.

0:39:140:39:17

He was older.

0:39:170:39:18

He was a much more educated man and he came from a good background,

0:39:180:39:24

and he said he had been there.

0:39:240:39:28

It was a confession that was used to convict the others.

0:39:290:39:34

The three of us fought with Geirfinnur

0:39:460:39:48

and that resulted in his death.

0:39:480:39:50

I don't remember the body being put in the car,

0:39:550:39:57

but on the way back to Reykjavik,

0:39:570:40:00

I remember Saevar saying that I was an accomplice to murder.

0:40:000:40:03

We transferred the body to Reykjavik -

0:40:090:40:12

of course took it in other cars

0:40:120:40:14

so it would never be found.

0:40:140:40:16

Erla waited while we carried the body into the Land Rover

0:40:310:40:34

and put him in the back.

0:40:340:40:36

We then drove all the way to Raudholar.

0:40:400:40:43

We dug a hole into the red gravel just big enough to fit the body.

0:40:470:40:51

State radio calls up the Prime Minister to get his reaction.

0:41:460:41:51

He says the nightmare is over.

0:41:510:41:53

The public just wanted our blood.

0:42:590:43:02

There was so much pressure on authorities to convict all of us

0:43:030:43:08

and get us really good,

0:43:080:43:10

and there was no-one that actually did not believe all this.

0:43:100:43:15

Now the accused had the opportunity to present their cases,

0:43:470:43:51

and they did. What they said was that they were innocent.

0:43:510:43:56

There was a lack of evidence,

0:43:570:44:00

there were no bodies,

0:44:000:44:02

and the whole case was nonsense -

0:44:020:44:05

but even though they were withdrawing their testimonies,

0:44:050:44:11

people believed they had killed those two men, end of story.

0:44:110:44:16

I was found guilty of the embezzlement, of course,

0:44:180:44:21

and perjury, that I had intentionally framed innocent people

0:44:210:44:27

for something they didn't do.

0:44:270:44:29

In the end, the police arrested the right people in both cases.

0:45:280:45:33

It was always with the feeling

0:45:400:45:42

that he was some sort of a Satanic criminal,

0:45:420:45:45

and I was supposed to have been

0:45:450:45:48

this submissive but monstrous person, as well.

0:45:480:45:51

The image that we were given

0:45:530:45:56

was very much like Charles Manson and his girlfriend.

0:45:560:46:00

The Minister of Justice thanks Karl Schutz

0:46:060:46:09

"for unburdening the Icelandic nation of a nightmare."

0:46:090:46:13

Obviously, the Minister of Justice was assuming, case solved.

0:46:130:46:18

What he didn't say - "This is the beginning of an endless nightmare,

0:46:180:46:23

"and this nightmare is still going to this day."

0:46:230:46:25

I don't think I had a clear thought for years through all this.

0:46:330:46:37

I felt like I was drowning in so much confusion and so much guilt.

0:46:380:46:45

Your thoughts can take over, and your mind becomes a monster.

0:46:480:46:53

"What of this am I remembering...

0:46:570:46:58

"..and what is missing that I'm not remembering?"

0:47:000:47:03

Memory is such a fickle thing.

0:47:100:47:11

The day I got out,

0:47:260:47:28

all I could think was, "My daughter's on the other side."

0:47:280:47:30

Man, I had prepared for days, you know, to look right,

0:47:320:47:36

and, you know, have the right things to say...

0:47:360:47:39

..and she had this bouquet of flowers, and...

0:47:410:47:47

..it was the happiest day ever.

0:47:480:47:51

When I was released, I was basically two things -

0:47:560:48:02

I provoked curiosity, and I was despised...

0:48:020:48:05

..and people felt free to express it,

0:48:060:48:10

like spitting in my face.

0:48:100:48:13

The first time Saevar and I ever talked about what had happened...

0:48:190:48:24

..it was literally that kind of moment, like,

0:48:260:48:30

"What the hell happened to us?"

0:48:300:48:32

You know, "What was it all about?"

0:48:320:48:34

He went through years of anger...

0:48:400:48:45

blaming me for everything...

0:48:450:48:48

..and I went through incredible guilt

0:48:500:48:54

for having testified against him.

0:48:540:48:58

There were so many years where we just couldn't...

0:49:020:49:06

connect, and it had so much to do with, you know...

0:49:060:49:10

Our relationship had been invaded by such dark powers.

0:49:100:49:16

It was very difficult to be Saevar Ciesielski here in Iceland,

0:49:320:49:36

in this small society.

0:49:360:49:38

He somehow became the evil

0:49:400:49:43

for, like, I don't know, 90% of the Icelanders.

0:49:430:49:46

Just evil incarnate.

0:49:460:49:49

When Saevar came out of prison,

0:49:530:49:57

he met a girl, and they lived together,

0:49:570:50:00

and they had two children,

0:50:000:50:02

and they even moved to America.

0:50:020:50:04

We tried to move to Colorado, and just start a new, you know,

0:50:060:50:11

family there, away from all this drama,

0:50:110:50:15

but he really could not let it go.

0:50:150:50:17

He wanted to clear his name.

0:50:170:50:20

We decided to go back to Iceland.

0:50:220:50:25

Then he started to...

0:50:250:50:27

..you know, really try to fight this case.

0:50:280:50:31

I collected the information of documents,

0:51:290:51:31

trying to understand what had happened,

0:51:310:51:35

the evidence of the case itself.

0:51:350:51:39

I saw the flaws.

0:51:390:51:41

They were so obvious.

0:51:410:51:43

Usually, in murder cases,

0:51:450:51:47

you have the place where the crime was committed,

0:51:470:51:50

you have bodies, you have motives.

0:51:500:51:54

They had no such traditional evidence at all.

0:51:560:52:00

They only had the statements made by the accused themselves.

0:52:010:52:06

My legal arguments were quite tight...

0:52:160:52:19

..and the facts were all in favour of reopening the case.

0:52:200:52:24

I presented all this to the Supreme Court.

0:52:250:52:28

APPLAUSE

0:53:380:53:40

He had a lot of support already at that time.

0:53:400:53:44

People were obviously not believing

0:53:440:53:47

in the correctness of the conclusions of the courts.

0:53:470:53:50

I saw a lot of Saevar after he lost his battle.

0:54:110:54:16

He had put his entire existence into this,

0:54:160:54:19

and, you know, where was he going to go from there?

0:54:190:54:23

I mean, in his world, there were no options.

0:54:250:54:27

I always knew there was something really dark and bad

0:54:290:54:34

that happened to my father.

0:54:340:54:36

Years and years of trying to fight the system,

0:54:370:54:41

and that, in the end, just tore him apart completely.

0:54:410:54:44

Many people knew Saevar only from the streets.

0:54:450:54:49

He was a heavy drinker, a broken man.

0:54:490:54:52

He was a famous man by that time,

0:54:550:54:58

and people were kind of mellowing towards him.

0:54:580:55:01

He still had this charm.

0:55:030:55:06

He might be drunk and drugged,

0:55:060:55:08

but he always, or usually, kept his charm.

0:55:080:55:12

But of course, it was very, very sad.

0:55:120:55:15

He was really emotional in the end about this whole thing,

0:55:510:55:55

and it was pretty hard to watch that happen,

0:55:550:55:59

you know, in slow motion in front of you.

0:55:590:56:02

Everybody had followed Saevar's journey...

0:56:100:56:13

..because he fought many battles to prove his innocence,

0:56:140:56:19

with no results.

0:56:190:56:21

His funeral was held at the cathedral downtown,

0:56:250:56:28

and it was totally packed,

0:56:280:56:31

from the street people to politicians.

0:56:310:56:34

When he died, it hit the news.

0:56:450:56:48

His relatives, Erla, and his children,

0:56:480:56:52

came forward and talked about this case, talked about his battles,

0:56:520:56:58

and pushed that this case should be reopened and reinvestigated.

0:56:580:57:06

That's when I thought maybe I should do something about it.

0:57:090:57:13

As a reporter, when you look at this case,

0:57:150:57:18

you're warned that you might be stepping into a black hole -

0:57:180:57:23

and once you look into it, you just can't stop.

0:57:230:57:28

I had filmed a couple of interviews with people related to this case,

0:57:310:57:36

and then I decided to speak to Tryggvi's widow.

0:57:360:57:40

My mum called me and said that there was this woman from the news

0:57:410:57:46

coming to interview her regarding my dad's case,

0:57:460:57:51

and asked if I wanted to come and be with them.

0:57:510:57:54

There was something in my mind that said that this could be useful,

0:57:580:58:04

because I didn't want my dad to be remembered as a murderer.

0:58:040:58:11

When we arrived, his daughter was there, Kristin,

0:58:180:58:21

and she said, "I have something you might be interested in.

0:58:210:58:26

"I have my father's diaries from when he was in prison."

0:58:260:58:31

I just wanted her to see them,

0:58:310:58:34

and I didn't think it would have any more meaning than that.

0:58:340:58:37

I just wanted her to see something from my dad.

0:58:370:58:41

A piece of him.

0:58:410:58:43

When she showed me the diaries, there was a long title.

0:58:450:58:50

It read,

0:58:510:58:52

"This is the diary of an innocent man

0:58:520:58:56

"who is accused of a very serious thing in a very serious case."

0:58:560:59:02

"April 25th, 1977.

0:59:030:59:06

"So, now, I have been here continuously for 16 months

0:59:060:59:10

"and 11 days in custody,

0:59:100:59:12

"including 14 months in isolation, totally alone.

0:59:120:59:16

"I shall hold fast.

0:59:200:59:22

"I don't have to be afraid,

0:59:220:59:24

"as I'm innocent, and justice always prevails in the end."

0:59:240:59:28

I realised at that point...

0:59:340:59:36

..we had something new.

0:59:370:59:40

We had something to report on.

0:59:400:59:43

So, I thought we would have to get a specialist's opinion.

0:59:430:59:47

Gisli Gudjonsson is a world-leading expert on false confessions.

0:59:510:59:57

An Icelander who has practised in the UK for 40 years.

0:59:571:00:02

I was thinking, the diaries, they need to go to Gisli.

1:00:041:00:07

He is the person.

1:00:071:00:09

If anybody should see them, it's got to be him...

1:00:091:00:12

..but I was so nervous.

1:00:131:00:15

I was afraid that Gisli would say that...

1:00:151:00:19

..even though he wrote that he was an innocent man, maybe he wasn't.

1:00:211:00:25

I could not say from reading the diaries,

1:00:311:00:33

this man is innocent or not, because it's not for me to say -

1:00:331:00:37

but he was stating his innocence and explaining why,

1:00:371:00:42

and that suggested that this was new material,

1:00:421:00:45

and I thought the case should be reviewed again.

1:00:451:00:48

The key implication was that perhaps the confessions were not reliable.

1:00:511:00:57

I was so relieved.

1:01:021:01:05

That was the biggest scoop.

1:01:051:01:09

My story was broadcast, and it got massive attention -

1:01:201:01:25

and I think in the same week,

1:01:251:01:28

the ministry announced that the investigation committee

1:01:281:01:32

would be established.

1:01:321:01:34

I decided to put down a commission

1:01:341:01:37

to look into the investigation, and the methods used

1:01:371:01:42

in the investigation,

1:01:421:01:44

and how these confessions were obtained.

1:01:441:01:48

We went through thousands of pages.

1:01:581:02:02

Police reports, handwritten notes from the police,

1:02:021:02:05

reports taken from prison guards.

1:02:051:02:08

It was quite obvious when we looked into the prison diaries

1:02:101:02:14

that many records were missing.

1:02:141:02:16

The convicted had a lack of access to their attorneys,

1:02:171:02:21

and they were interrogated many, many times more often

1:02:211:02:25

than the police reports indicated.

1:02:251:02:28

Saevar, for example -

1:02:301:02:32

he had been interrogated 180 times for 340 hours.

1:02:321:02:38

He had been in solitary for 615 days.

1:02:391:02:44

Erla was interrogated 105 times.

1:02:471:02:51

Tryggvi was kept in solitary for the longest -

1:02:571:03:02

for 655 days total.

1:03:021:03:04

It became very clear to us that many things were going seriously wrong

1:03:061:03:12

under the investigation.

1:03:121:03:13

The key findings of the commission

1:03:371:03:40

were that these confessions

1:03:401:03:45

were in all likelihood fabricated.

1:03:451:03:48

People had been admitting to something they didn't do.

1:03:481:03:53

I have never worked on a case, anywhere in the world,

1:03:531:03:57

where there'd been so many interrogations,

1:03:571:04:00

and such lengthy interrogations.

1:04:001:04:02

This is quite exceptional.

1:04:021:04:03

This is the only case I know of where so many individuals

1:04:071:04:11

have had their memories distorted to this extent.

1:04:111:04:14

Five of the six had what I call a memory distrust syndrome.

1:04:171:04:22

The person begins to think,

1:04:241:04:26

"Maybe something did happen, and I didn't remember it."

1:04:261:04:29

When I read the report,

1:04:321:04:35

I was really faced with how incredibly unreliable memory is.

1:04:351:04:39

"What of this am I remembering..."

1:04:441:04:47

"..and what is missing that I'm not remembering?

1:04:571:05:00

This whole thing starts with a confession...

1:05:031:05:06

..where Erla was under no pressure at all.

1:05:071:05:10

It's she that tells them that they were involved

1:05:121:05:16

in the killing of Gudmundur.

1:05:161:05:18

The police had been explaining

1:05:201:05:22

that often when people experience something

1:05:221:05:25

that is too much for them to handle,

1:05:251:05:27

they bury it somewhere, and they cannot recall it...

1:05:271:05:32

and they said,

1:05:321:05:33

"We know how to help you remember if you did witness something terrible."

1:05:331:05:38

They formed a crack in my mind...

1:05:581:06:01

..and then they just got in there, and worked on it...

1:06:021:06:06

..and that was my horror -

1:06:231:06:24

to face the possibility

1:06:241:06:27

that Saevar would have resorted to cutting up a human being.

1:06:271:06:32

Through all this exchange, this story came out.

1:06:371:06:42

Almost like a genie, you know, or something -

1:06:421:06:45

and for a long time, I asked myself, "Who made that story?"

1:06:451:06:51

Did I make it, or...? How did that, you know, transpire?

1:06:511:06:57

At the time that Erla was questioned...

1:06:571:07:00

..in the Gudmundur case, she was a very vulnerable person.

1:07:011:07:06

It is likely that the police officers

1:07:061:07:10

had, in their own mind, a scenario

1:07:101:07:12

of what had happened to Gudmundur Einarsson,

1:07:121:07:16

and over time,

1:07:161:07:18

Erla began to believe that maybe Saevar and his friends

1:07:181:07:22

HAD been involved.

1:07:221:07:24

Once she began to express doubt in her own memory,

1:07:261:07:30

the police went for it.

1:07:301:07:32

DOORBELL RINGS

1:07:331:07:34

Now, the police were going to come after me

1:07:391:07:42

about what happened to Geirfinnur.

1:07:421:07:44

In one version, Saevar had hit him with a wooden log,

1:07:511:07:54

another time, he had kicked him in the head,

1:07:541:07:57

and Kristjan had done it, and it was all over the place...

1:07:571:08:01

..and then they had a warrant for my arrest.

1:08:091:08:12

At that point, I felt so guilty...

1:08:171:08:21

..and I was so responsible for ruining so many people's lives...

1:08:221:08:27

..that...it was not too much for me to take it on me.

1:08:281:08:35

GUNSHOT

1:08:351:08:36

The police were faced with a huge dilemma.

1:09:011:09:06

They had confessions, but they had no substance.

1:09:061:09:10

There was nothing tangible that came out of those interrogations...

1:09:101:09:14

..and the country wanted an answer.

1:09:151:09:19

What happened to Geirfinnur Einarsson?

1:09:191:09:22

To come to Sidumuli Prison,

1:09:331:09:37

when the cases of Gudmundur and Geirfinnur started...

1:09:371:09:41

it was another world.

1:09:411:09:43

The atmosphere in Sidumuli

1:09:471:09:49

was very intense.

1:09:491:09:52

The attitude amongst the guards and the policemen

1:09:531:09:59

was that these people were murderers.

1:09:591:10:03

The more pressure, the sooner they would confess.

1:10:031:10:06

The guards despised Saevar.

1:10:101:10:13

They called him "the rat."

1:10:131:10:16

The one thing to break him down was to rid him of sleep.

1:10:191:10:25

There was a light, day and night, 24 hours,

1:10:271:10:31

and during the night,

1:10:311:10:34

they would knock on the wall where he was inside.

1:10:341:10:39

That was to keep him awake.

1:10:411:10:45

WATER RUNS

1:10:451:10:47

Saevar was afraid of water.

1:10:481:10:52

They took him, and immersed his head into the water...

1:10:541:11:01

..and said they would drown him if he didn't confess.

1:11:041:11:10

Those guards who did it, they enjoyed it and were proud of it,

1:11:111:11:16

and laughed about it, of "drowning the rat."

1:11:161:11:19

This was a heavy-handed investigation.

1:11:271:11:30

This was heavy.

1:11:301:11:31

Albert Klahn went berserk in custody after a few days.

1:11:311:11:34

Tryggvi Runar had to be, after four nights of sleeplessness,

1:11:351:11:38

sedated by an injection.

1:11:381:11:40

Kristjan Vidar tried to kill himself twice.

1:11:421:11:45

It's breaking down that core - your capacity to really say,

1:11:471:11:53

"I know that did not happen."

1:11:531:11:55

Once that's broken down, you are very vulnerable.

1:11:561:12:00

"There was nothing but waiting.

1:12:041:12:06

"Waiting for the next interrogation, wondering what I would say.

1:12:071:12:10

"In the cell, I could do nothing but think.

1:12:121:12:14

"I grew into the walls.

1:12:161:12:18

"I could not feel my body - I was just head."

1:12:201:12:24

There is a picture which really was accepted by the court,

1:12:331:12:37

where Kristjan Vidar is kind of enacting

1:12:371:12:39

what happened to Geirfinnur.

1:12:391:12:42

Here is what happened - there's a photograph of it,

1:12:441:12:47

exactly how it took place.

1:12:471:12:49

Once you have enacted something, you're showing how you did it,

1:12:531:12:56

it may have a damaging effect

1:12:561:12:59

in the sense that it may reinforce that memory.

1:12:591:13:03

You begin to think it did actually happen like that.

1:13:041:13:08

HE SPEAKS IN ICELANDIC

1:13:361:13:37

It was four times a day that they brought pills that I had to take,

1:13:391:13:43

and all of them had one thing in common,

1:13:431:13:45

and that was, they were tranquillising.

1:13:451:13:47

I wasn't allowed to go outside.

1:13:541:13:56

It was complete isolation.

1:13:581:14:01

Very soon, you shrink down to this helpless baby.

1:14:031:14:08

Your mentality and your intelligence...

1:14:091:14:11

everything just shrinks,

1:14:111:14:13

and you're in this abstract world.

1:14:131:14:16

You know, I really just...needed to die...

1:14:271:14:32

but this one...

1:14:321:14:34

one tie, with the baby...

1:14:341:14:37

was the thing that didn't allow me to do that.

1:14:371:14:39

When I thought about her...

1:14:431:14:46

I couldn't picture her.

1:14:461:14:49

I couldn't see her face...

1:14:491:14:52

and then I knew I was going crazy,

1:14:521:14:54

and I even wondered, "Did I ever even have a baby?

1:14:541:14:59

"Is that also my imagination?

1:14:591:15:02

"Because I could swear that I feel that I do...

1:15:021:15:06

"but no picture is coming."

1:15:061:15:08

The criminal police told her that in order to get out,

1:15:271:15:33

she had to tell everything,

1:15:331:15:36

and therefore, she told and told and told -

1:15:361:15:40

much too much.

1:15:401:15:42

This case is probably the first one that the police feels pressure

1:15:431:15:49

from the press and from the public.

1:15:491:15:52

They had this fact that these people were missing, they had...

1:15:531:15:57

confessions, if you like,

1:15:571:15:59

from some of the people that had been involved in killing them...

1:15:591:16:03

..but they always were changing the stories of who did what.

1:16:041:16:09

HE SPEAKS IN GERMAN

1:16:101:16:12

Karl Schutz is brought in by the Minister of Justice

1:16:181:16:21

to harmonise the confessions,

1:16:211:16:24

and to make them credible in terms of the court of law.

1:16:241:16:27

He is very much in charge, driving the investigation.

1:16:291:16:34

Everything was focused on proving that they were guilty.

1:16:361:16:40

Karl Schutz taught the Icelandic detectives

1:16:411:16:44

a new way of interrogating.

1:16:441:16:46

Basically, it involved coming at suspects

1:16:481:16:52

from many different directions.

1:16:521:16:54

They would jump from one time to another

1:16:561:16:58

to trick them into revealing the truth.

1:16:581:17:01

The police suggest things -

1:17:021:17:04

"Could it have been this way, could it have been that way?"

1:17:041:17:08

and the person persuades himself perhaps he was present,

1:17:081:17:12

and begins to believe it.

1:17:121:17:14

When Gudjon Skarphedinsson was arrested,

1:17:171:17:20

his statements...

1:17:201:17:22

..were very important in closing up the case.

1:17:231:17:28

It's the same...

1:17:501:17:51

..routine, again and again.

1:17:521:17:55

Did we bury him somewhere or throw him in the ocean?

1:17:551:17:59

Where was the car?

1:17:591:18:01

Who else was involved?

1:18:011:18:03

What was it all about?

1:18:031:18:04

You get tired,

1:18:061:18:07

and you don't know whether you're dreaming or remembering things.

1:18:071:18:14

I got completely confused.

1:18:161:18:18

It came like clips from a movie into your mind.

1:18:191:18:25

In the end, you feel you have been there...

1:18:441:18:47

..that this has really happened.

1:18:481:18:51

You wonder, "What else has happened that I don't remember?"

1:18:561:19:00

You can't trust your own mind.

1:19:031:19:06

It's sort of like somebody pulls the carpet from underneath,

1:19:081:19:11

and you're standing in thin air,

1:19:111:19:14

and you don't know where the ground is.

1:19:141:19:17

From the beginning, there was presumption of guilt.

1:19:291:19:32

Nobody seemed to consider the possibility

1:19:331:19:36

that these people might be innocent,

1:19:361:19:38

and that they did not know what had happened

1:19:381:19:41

to Gudmundur and Geirfinnur.

1:19:411:19:43

Once the confession is taken, once it's in the air,

1:19:431:19:47

it corrupts everything else.

1:19:471:19:49

My feeling is that the police was under that much pressure

1:19:521:19:57

that once they were on this journey, and went down that track...

1:19:571:20:02

..there was no turning back.

1:20:031:20:06

The rumour here in Iceland

1:20:061:20:07

is that it's all a conspiracy by the police -

1:20:071:20:10

I'm telling you it's not.

1:20:101:20:12

These were honest guys trying to do their best,

1:20:141:20:17

and they did the right thing.

1:20:171:20:19

In the end, it's the prosecution system

1:20:191:20:22

that has to decide what to do

1:20:221:20:24

with the result of a police investigation.

1:20:241:20:27

I think we are learning from this case.

1:20:281:20:32

We're looking into a mirror.

1:20:321:20:35

When there's been a miscarriage of justice, lives are destroyed.

1:20:351:20:40

It's terribly important that the truth emerges,

1:20:401:20:44

and that we correct the injustices that have been done.

1:20:441:20:47

This was a witch hunt that did much harm.

1:20:491:20:53

I remember saying to myself,

1:20:541:20:56

"How did it come about that I was caught up in this public hysteria?"

1:20:561:21:01

And it brought out...

1:21:011:21:04

bad things in people, you know?

1:21:041:21:07

And that's what we're still recovering from.

1:21:071:21:10

It's still difficult for me to see those pictures.

1:21:211:21:24

It's just so painful to see this child,

1:21:261:21:30

because I'm connecting to what she went through -

1:21:301:21:33

but it still isn't really me.

1:21:331:21:37

It's always somebody else.

1:21:391:21:41

And...it leaves you pretty crazy, you know?

1:21:431:21:48

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