Oud-premier IJsland aangeklaagd voor rol in de economische crisis (en)
Iceland's parliament decided Tuesday (28 September) to press negligence charges against former prime minister Geir Haarde for his role in the island's economic collapse two years ago, a move that would make him the first head of state to be indicted for the global financial crisis.
After lawmakers voted unanimously to endorse findings of the "truth report" on the banking crisis prepared by the parliamentary committee they also took a vote on whether to recommend four ex- member of the government, including the former prime minister, for prosecution.
The parliament voted 33-30 to refer charges to the court against Mr Haarde, leaving him the only one to be officially investigated, as MPs declined to refer the former finance minister, former business minister and former foreign minister to a special court.
Mr Haarde, who took over as prime minister in 2006 and was ousted from power in 2009, faces up to two years in jail if found guilty by the special court, Landsdomur. The court has never been convened since it was set up in 1905 to try ministers who have allegedly failed in their duties.
According to the committee, Mr Haarde should be held responsible of "violations committed from February 2008 through the beginning of October of the same year, by intent or gross neglect, mostly violations against the laws of ministerial responsibility" as well as breaches of the Icelandic penal code. Country's banks, brought low by the credit crisis, collapsed in October 2008. Three of the biggest have been nationalised.
"I will answer all charges before the court and I will be vindicated," he was quoted as telling the Icelandic Broadcaster RUV by The Associated Press. "I have a clean slate. This charge borders on political persecution," he said.
"My official acts as prime minister didn't cause the banking collapse; it wasn't in my power, or in the power of other ministers, to prevent it," Mr Haarde said in a written statement two weeks ago, adding that "those with a clean conscience are not afraid to resolve their issues in front of an impartial and unbiased court such as the Landsdomur is intended to be".
Rating agencies
While Icelandic MPs have said the former prime minister should be liable for the crisis, the EU's finance minister will discuss this week how they might penalise rating agencies that pass inappropriate judgements on countries.
"It must be possible to penalise. If after some weeks or months it is possible to say it [a downgrade] was a wrong signal, what is the responsibility of the rating agency?," Didier Reynders, the finance minister of acting EU president Belgium, was quoted as saying by Reuters.
"It is quite difficult to say that there is no responsibility if it is possible to prove it was a wrong analysis, a wrong signal. The penalties is the capacity to impose some responsibility on the rating agencies," he said.
However, it is not clear who would decide whether an agency rating and predictions were wrong and what possible penalties the agencies, which are in the spotlight because of some of their rating decisions during the sovereign debt crisis, could face.