To Get A Confession

The Real Story

[Some words/sentences were taken from Wikipedia in order to use the proper Icelandic characters.]

The Guðmundur and Geirfinnur case, also known as the Reykjavik Confessions, is a case about the disappearances of Icelandic citizens Guðmundur Einarsson, an 18-year-old 'laborer', and Geirfinnur Einarsson, a 32-year-old construction worker unrelated to Guðmundur. Six suspects were taken into Icelandic police custody and locked in solitary confinement for various lengths of combined time, with the lowest number of days being 242 days and the highest 1,533 days. Six suspects, Sævar Ciesielski, Kristján Viðar Viðarsson, Tryggvi Rúnar Leifsson, Albert Klahn Skaftason, Guðjón Skarphéðinsson, and Erla Bolladóttir, eventually signed confessions to murder, even though they had no clear memory of committing the crimes. While in police custody [prior to signing their confessions],  the six had undergone repeated solitary confinement, sleep deprivation, water torture, interrogations of over 16 hours or longer at a time, and drugged with various substances, including Mogadon, diazepam, and chlorpromazine, that Sævar Ciesielski, the alleged ringleader, claimed altered his memory and sleeping pattern, among other symptoms. Sævar Marinó, Kristján Viðar, and Tryggvi Rúnar were convicted for killing Guðmundur while Albert Klahn was convicted for helping to hide the body. Sævar Marinó, Kristján Viðar, and Guðjón were later convicted for killing Geirfinnur Einarsson while Erla Bolladóttir was convicted of perjury after she implicated her half-brother and others in the disappearance.

In a speech in 1998, then Prime Minister of Iceland, Davið Oddsson, heavily criticized the investigation and prosecution of the case after the Supreme Court of Iceland ruled that it could not rehear the case. In 2018 it was revealed that Davíð had given Sævar financial support and advice to help him get the case reheard. The case was made public in a radio BBC program in May 2014, which discussed the apparent memory implantation. Professor Gísli Guðjónsson, a former Icelandic detective and internationally renowned expert on suggestibility and false confessions, investigated this case and concluded: "I've worked on miscarriages of justice in many different countries. I've testified in several countries - hundreds of cases I've done, big cases. I'd never come across any case where there had been such intense interrogation, so many interrogations, and such lengthy solitary confinement. I mean I was absolutely shocked when I saw that." Most Icelanders came to believe the case had been a bad miscarriage of justice, and the BBC described it as "one of the most shocking miscarriages of justice Europe has ever witnessed."

In 2013, an official police investigation report was handed to the office of the State Prosecutor. On 24 February 2017, the Interior Ministry's Rehearing Committee concluded that the cases of Sævar Ciesielski, Kristján Viðar Viðarsson, Tryggvi Rúnar Leifsson, Albert Klahn Skaftason, and Guðjón Skarphéðinsson should be reheard by the Supreme Court of Iceland. However, the committee did not recommend a retrial for Erla Bolladóttir's perjury case. In February 2018, the State Prosecutor requested that the Supreme Court acquit Sævar Ciesielski, Kristján Viðar Viðarsson, Tryggvi Rúnar Leifsson, Albert Klahn Skaftason, Guðjón Skarphéðinsson, and Erla Bolladóttir. On 27 September 2018, the Supreme Court acquitted all five men but did not reverse Erla Bolladóttir's conviction.

The fate of Guðmundur and Geirfinnur is still a mystery. No bodies were ever found, and no one turned up to testify to having a hand in their disappearance or death. However, one eyewitness did come forward to police during their initial controversial investigation, and claimed she had witnessed two grown men carrying a wounded third man onto a boat, who saw her and said, "Remember me". When the boat had returned, that man had not been with the other two anymore. The eyewitness did not identify this third man as either Guðmundur or Geirfinnur, however, and this occurrence was never investigated.

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Please note that this is a summarized recounting based on research that is meant to provide context to a fictional story. The real case is incredibly long and complex. While it can be fun to read about cold cases and wonder what happened, it's important to remember that these are real people, and the things that they were subjected to in police custody were horrific and inhumane. Two people disappeared, and someone committed suicide because of what they were put through. 

I strongly encourage anyone interested in this case to do some further research before forming any opinions.