Icelander's Brazil Prison Ordeal

Hlynur Smári Sigurðsson, a 23 year old Icelander has been in a Brazilian prison in Porto Segurio for three months now for attempting to smuggle two kilos of cocaine from the country. His case has still not been tried and he has described his life as a constant living nightmare these days.

 "Every day I have to fight for my life. The first day I got here I was attacked by a prisoner with a knife who wanted to steal my cigarettes." Hlynur says that prisoners are drugged to slow them down, that the prison is digustingly dirty and that everyone is infected with lice. " We only have dirty water and worm-infested bread to eat. "

He says that he cannot sleep at night for fear of being killed. " The thought of my young son, my family and friends back home keep me going, " Sigurðsson then dissolved into tears when speaking to a Fréttablaðið journalist. " Apparently I need lots of money to get my case before court. That's how things work in this country."

 His case is being looked into by the Icelandic Foreign Ministry but there are no extradition agreements between Brazil and Iceland. Another Icelander is currently in a prison in Sao Paolo for trying to smuggle twelve kilos of hash to Brazil.