„The countries youngest convict“: Parole revoked and still in custody – Suspect in a shooting

Hrannar Fossberg Við­ars­son was today sentenced by the Court of Appeal to serve the rest of the sentence he received in the District Court in Reykja­vík, in 2018. He received parole the year after. DV orig­inally reported on this.

Hrannar was a suspect in a shooting in Graf­ar­holt, Reykja­vík in the middle of the night, on Thursday February 10th of this year. A fri­end of Hrannar was also arre­sted. However, Hrannar was the only one of the two men, who was a suspect in the shooting, which was aimed at a couple. Hrannar is said to have committed the act in a fit of jealousy. He and the woman in question are a for­mer couple.

The injuries the woman sustained were life threa­ten­ing. She was hit in the stomach, but the man was shot in the thigh. The woman had to und­ergo sur­gery so the bul­let could be removed from her body.

According to the sentence, the other man on the scene admitted to hav­ing dri­ven Hrannar there. Upon arri­val at the home in Graf­ar­holt, the men noticed the for­mer fiancée of Hrannar. Hrannar called out to the woman and fired his weapon in quick success, in the direction of the couple.

Investigation of the gun powder res­i­due supp­orted the fri­end’s statem­ent. It indicated the shots hav­ing been fired through the passen­ger side window, where Hrannar was seated. His fri­end was the one dri­v­ing the car.

Received the questionable honor of being the countries youngest convict

Hrannar has a long criminal record and has discussed his difficult life in the media. He started using drugs at a young age and upon seeking help he arri­ved at closed doors. At just sixteen years old he received probation sentence for attempted murder and serious physical assault. He was only fifteen when he committed the crimes.

In a December 2017 article in Vísir he was titled the countries youngest convict, being incarcerated at Hólms­heiði pri­son, at just 18 years of age. In an interview for that same article, Hrannar stated that Hólms­heiði pri­son was the best form of rehab he had ever been to. However, there was not much work for him to do and he had not received any answers to his inquiries for seeking college education.

In February 2018 Hrannar said in an interview with DV, at 19 years old, that he had been sentenced for five years in pri­son for various offences. Among those were violations of laws reg­ar­ding weapon, drugs, and traffic, in addition to threats of violence. The long sentence was due to Hrannar hav­ing bro­ken the parole he received two years ear­lier, when the crimes were committed.

Hrannar has been in custody ever since February 11th after the shooting in Graf­ar­holt. The investigation into the shooting is said to be in final stages. Hrannar is nearly done with the max­imum custody time.

The verdict can be read here.

This article was orig­inally publ­is­hed in Icelandic by Salome Frið­geirs­dóttir.