Ögmundur Jónasson

Ögmundur Jónasson (born 17 July 1948) is an Icelandic politician who served as a member of Althingi, the Icelandic Parliament, from 1995 to 2016. He is the former Minister of the Interior (2011-2013); Minister of Justice and human rights and minister of transport, communications and local government; and Minister of Health and social security (2009).

Early life and education Ögmundur was born in Reykjavík. He is born to father Jónas B. Jónsson, an education director, and mother Guðrún Ö. Stephensen, a housewife.

Ögmundur became Iceland's Minister of Health in February 2009, but resigned at the end of September in connection with the Icesave dispute. He returned to the government in September 2010 and from January 2011 he headed the newly created Ministry of the Interior and stayed as minister until a new government came to power in 2013.

Personal life

Family Ögmundur is married to Valgerður Andrésdóttir, a geneticist, with whom he has three children. and a strong supporter of human rights and national minority rights. He is also a supporter of the Campaign for the Establishment of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly, an organisation which campaigns for democratic reformation of the United Nations. He has gained international attention in connection with three issues. First, he proposed measures designed to protect children from the harms of violent pornography as part of his broader support for human rights and women’s rights. It was a step criticized by some free speech activists, but welcomed by human rights advocates and feminists. Second, his decision in 2011 to reject a plan by a Chinese business tycoon, Mr. Huang Nubo, to purchase a huge tract of land in the North East of Iceland attracted much geopolitical and media attention. It raised suspicions that the plan was part of Chinese efforts to gain a strategic foothold in Iceland. Third, Ögmundur Jónasson refused all cooperation with FBI agents who had come to Iceland in 2011 to question Sigurdur Thordarson—on the pretext of investigating an impending hacking attack on Icelandic government computers—and directed them to leave the country because he believed that they were, in fact, engaged in a broader swoop to gather intelligence on WikiLeaks and in trying to frame its founder Julian Assange.