Iceland could face its second snap election in a year after one of the three parties in its ruling coalition said it was quitting because of a “serious breach of trust” over the alleged cover-up of a scandal involving the prime minister’s father. The Bright Future party said on its Facebook page that it had “decided to terminate cooperation with the government”, effectively bringing down Bjarni Benediktsson’s administration barely nine months after it was formed.

The walkout follows reports that the prime minister’s Independence party tried to conceal a letter written by his father, Benedikt Sveinsson, to help a friend convicted of child sexual offences have his criminal record cleared. The justice minister, Sigridur Andersen, of the Independence party, told Benediktsson of the letter in July but the government did not publicly disclose its existence until forced to do so by a parliamentary committee this week.

Sveinsson’s letter recommended that his friend Hjalti Sigurjón Hauksson, sentenced to five years in prison in 2004 for repeatedly raping his stepdaughter for 12 years since the age of five, should have his “honour restored”. The widely criticised Icelandic legal procedure restores the “civil standing” of people who have served sentences for serious offences – allowing them, for example, to apply for certain jobs – without erasing their criminal records. One requirement for the status is a letter of recommendation from a close friend.(theguardian)…[+]