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CRIME

Gang member sentenced to 20 years in prison, deportation for attempted murder of police officers

A member of Danish organised crime group Loyal to Familia (LTF) has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for the attempted murder of two plain-clothed police officers whom he confused for members of a rival gang.

Published: 17 December 2018 13:30 CET
Gang member sentenced to 20 years in prison, deportation for attempted murder of police officers
File photo: Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix

Copenhagen City Court also sentenced the 20-year-old man, a national of Pakistan, to deportation.

The convicted man’s identity has not been made public due to potential appeal procedures. He was born and raised in Denmark and has a two-year-old child, Ritzau reports.

The incident for which he was found guilty occurred in September 2017, when two shots were fired from a motorcycle towards two men in the back yard of a building in the Mjølnerparken housing area in Copenhagen.

The two men were police officers and were sitting in an unmarked police car.

The prosecution authority found that the shots were fired because the attacker mistakenly thought the men to be members of a rival gang named Brothas.

The case was trialled by jury, with 11 members finding in favour of a 20-year sentence and one voting for an 18-year sentence.

Monday’s sentencing follows a guilty verdict being reached in the trial on Wednesday last week, when three others were acquitted of planning to kill the two persons in Mjølnerparken.

One of the three, 20-year-old Ekram Yavuz, was, however, found guilty of possessing firearms and threatening behaviour. He was given five and a half years in prison and did not appeal the sentence.

Danish criminal law allows harsher punishments for certain crimes if they are committed in connection with gang activity.

READ ALSO: UN concerned over Denmark's plan to banish foreign convicts to deserted island

CRIME

Denmark to add war crimes to criminal code

Denmark is to give international war crimes a specific paragraph in its criminal code, ending its position as one of the last European countries not to have specific laws on war crimes.

Published: 21 March 2023 11:58 CET
Denmark to add war crimes to criminal code

The government confirmed on Tuesday that it supports a motion by the opposition Socialist People’s Party (SF) to introduce a war crimes paragraph.

“I think it’s important to say first and foremost that war crimes are already illegal in Danish criminal law,” Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard told news wire Ritzau.

“It is not written in as specific clauses in the criminal law, but all offences that are war crimes are criminal,” he said.

“But with all that said, I think that SF has an important point in saying that the time has now come for us to introduce an independent criminalisation of war crimes. I think that would send out an important message to the world, and especially to victims,” he said.

“I will therefore, when the motion is discussed tomorrow [Tuesday, ed.] say, that the government backs criminalising war crimes independently under Danish law,” he said.

Hummelgaard plans to initiate a committee to look into how laws against war crimes can be written and added to the criminal code.

The committee will also consider whether sentences for war crimes should be higher than existing sentences given from crimes such as murder and torture.

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