A former prime minister of Iceland has rejected charges that he failed to adequately protect his country’s economy from financial shocks, as he took the stand in the first criminal trial of a world leader to result from the 2008 financial crisis.

Iceland’s former prime minister has rejected charges he failed to protect his country’s economy from financial shocks as the first world leader to go on criminal trial over the 2008 financial crisis.

Iceland’s former prime minister, the first world leader charged over the 2008 financial crisis that left nations on the edge of fiscal disaster, goes on trial today.

Voters in Iceland rejected a government-backed deal to repay Britain and the Netherlands for their citizens’ €3.5bn worth of deposits in a failed online bank, referendum results showed – sending the dispute to an international court and plunging the economically fragile country into new uncertainty.

Voters in Iceland have resoundingly rejected a €3.9bn plan to pay back Britain and the Netherlands for debts caused by the collapse of an Icelandic Internet bank.