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Sigríður Á. Andersen
Sigríður Ásthildur Andersen (born 21 November 1971) is an Icelandic politician and lawyer who served as the Minister of Justice of Iceland from 2017–2019.[1][2][3] She resigned as minister of justice in March 2019 after the European Court of Human Rights found her appointments of judges to the Icelandic court of appeals to be illegal.[4][5] She has been a member of the Icelandic parliament (Althing) for the Independence Party since 2015.[6][7] Education and careerSigríður graduated from Reykjavik Junior College in 1991, studied law at the University of Iceland, and became an attorney in 2001.[8] From 1999–2005, she worked as a lawyer at the Icelandic Chamber of Commerce, sat on the Council of District Courts from 2004–2009, and then worked at a private law firm from 2007–2015.[8] She was a deputy member of parliament for the Independence Party for a short while in 2008 and for a few months in 2012–2015.[8] She then became an elected member of parliament in 2015.[8] ControversiesSigríður was a controversial figure during her tenure as Justice Minister.[9] She played a pivotal role in the controversy surrounding the 'restored honour' of a convicted child sex offender which led to the dissolution of the Cabinet of Iceland under prime minister Bjarni Benediktsson in 2017.[10][11] In 2017, she did not follow the recommendations of a special committee list of the most qualified judges for the newly formed Icelandic court of appeals and instead hand-picked 4 of them, including the wife of fellow Independence Party parliamentarian Brynjar Níelsson.[12] On 12 March 2019, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the appointments had been made illegally.[13] On 13 March 2019, in the aftermath of the ruling, Sigríður announced that she would resign as Justice Minister.[4] References
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