In December 1976 six young people confessed to the murders of Gudmundur Einarsson and Geirfinnur Einarsson. That ended what had become a national crisis in a small country, Iceland, accustomed to a lack of criminal activity. The six suspects served prison terms, with one of them receiving the longest sentence in Icelandic history – life plus one year.

The case is very much alive to this day in Iceland. Not only are these the biggest “murder” cases the Icelandic police has had to deal with, but the fact that there were never any forensic evidence that linked the six to the case, there was no established motive and there were no bodies. Only confessions. This case is about to hit the headlines again.

In the next few months, Iceland’s state prosecutor will open the case up again and re-evaluate the verdict and possibly overturn it. This unprecedented act is due to a formal acknowledgement that the suspects were suffering from “Memory Distrust Syndrome” – an established psychological condition in which an individual doubts the accuracy of their memory concerning the content and context of events which they have experienced – often as a result of coercive interrogation techniques. Due to a combination of lengthy interrogations, long periods of solitary confinement and the intense pressure of the case, the suspects fabricated their own involvement in a crime that none of them committed. Some of the suspects were so badly afflicted that, to this day, they are unsure of whether or not they committed a murder.

This is a taut psychological thriller where nothing is as it seems.