Haarde himself pleads not guilty saying “the allegations are baseless”. In fact his defense is basing their argument on the proposition that this judgment is merely a political process and a smear campaign to Haarde and his political line. Haarde’s defense claims that the former Prime Minister could not have had power in a private banking business because of his political status and that the management he made at the gates of the crisis was not the reason why the Icelandic banking system’s base fell off the of in 2008.
Former Icelandic Prime Minister Geir Haarde in State Trial
Posted On Tuesday, March 6, 2012 By thenordiccountries. Under Current Topics, News from Iceland Tags: Geir Haarde, Iceland former prime minister, State Trial Iceland
Iceland continues in the trial of former Prime Minister Geir Haarde who is accused of negligence in his action in the global economic crisis which affected greatly the small Nordic country of Iceland. In 2008 the Icelandic banking system collapsed determinedly leading the country to the brink of bankruptcy.The Icelandic state court, called Landsdomur, had never functioned in its history, beginning from its creation in 1905. Now, however, the Icelandic parliament has decided to act and convened the court to manage the charges of Haarde. Four of the Haarde government ministers were also investigated, but finally the only accused to sit on the dock will be the former Prime Minister.Geir Haarde is accused, among other things, of collapsing the Icesave bank, by not having presumably fulfilled the law on the responsibility of ministers and for not having heeded the warnings from the banking sector in the moments before the outbreak of the crisis. It is the first Icelandic Prime Minister in dealing with the state courts.
However, to be judged Haarde would face a possible sentence of two years in prison. The expected duration of the trial is 10 days.The Icelanders’ view on the issue has changed since a year ago two thirds of the inhabitants were in favor of the process, and today only half of the Icelandic population supports it.A contradictory data on this trial is that, apparently Haarde is the only politician in Iceland who is being charged for his management in the crisis and, although there are several corruption cases opened against Icelandic executives in such material, no owner of an Icelandic bank has been affected by the moment.