THE FORMER PRIME Minister of Iceland, who went on trial over the country’s banking crisis, has said that such a court case is not an example to be emulated elsewhere.
Geir Haarde was speaking to RTÉ Radio the day after he was found guilty of just one of the five charges against him relating to the country’s banking crisis.
Haarde, a former finance minister, was found guilty on the charge related to failing to adequately inform government ministers of events at the time of the collapse of the country’s banking system in 2008.
He told Morning Ireland: “The process as such was absurd and ridiculous but the victory… I mean the outcome at the end of the day yesterday was a big victory for me yesterday.
“Although I consider the final count of the indictment on which I was found guilty [to be] absurd.”
The ex-PM, who led Iceland from 2006 to 2009, was the first government leader to face a criminal prosecution in the aftermath of the global financial crisis but he described the trial as ”contradictory within it’s own terms” and a waste of taxpayers’ money.
Haarde said the entire process had been “purely politically motivated” and accused the Icelandic government of using the court system to settle political differences.
He continued: “The politics of the day should not get involved in the work of the courts. So I don’t think this is an example to be emulated elsewhere.”
Asked about Ireland’s banking crisis, Haarde said that they key difference between Iceland and Ireland was how each dealt with their banking crises and the decision of Brian Cowen’s government to guarantee all Irish banks’ external obligations in September 2008.
He said another difference was that the fact that Ireland was locked into the “straitjacket” of the eurozone and was unable to devalue its currency.
“When we look back, when we know all what we know today, clearly there are things that we would like to do differently,” he added.
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