Icelandic lawmakers on yesterday voted to send former Prime Minister Geir Haarde to a special court over his role in the crisis that crippled Iceland’s economy at the end of 2008.

The Icelandic Parliament, Althingi, voted by 33 votes in favour and 30 votes against to send the former Prime Minister to a special court, Landsdomur, which will then decide if he is to be charged for negligence.

Mr Haarde, 59, had stepped down to fight cancer in January 2009, just after Iceland’s major banks went under.

He was first elected in 2006 and re-elected in 2007.

The Parliament yesterday voted against sending former Finance Minister Arni Mattiassen, former Foreign Minister Ingibjorg Solrun Gisladottir and former Business Minister Bjoergvin Sigurdsson to the court.

Earlier this month, a parliamentary commission blamed extreme negligence of the former conservative government for the fall of Icelandic three banks in October 2008 that led the country’s unprecedented financial crisis.

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