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CRIME

Denmark wants to bar life sentence prisoners from online dating

Convicted criminals serving life sentences should be restricted from coming into contact with the outside world by using social media and preventing from freely discussing their crimes publicly, Denmark’s Ministry of Justice said on Wednesday.

Denmark wants to bar life sentence prisoners from online dating
A new Danish bill could restrict the rights of prisoners on long term sentences from establishing new relationships online. File photo: Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix

The government has drafted a bill including six proposals which it says would limit the ability of people with life sentences from “dating or giving publicity to their crimes, for example on social media”, the ministry said in a statement.

 

The proposal would also apply to specified people in safe custody (forvaring in Danish), a type of sentence which keeps them imprisoned with no time limit for as long as they are deemed dangerous.

 

The ministry said it wants to deny prisoners serving such sentences the opportunity to “engage in new relationships” during the first 10 years of their sentences.

 

Current rules enable prison inmates serving life to write to, call and receive visits from people with whom they have established contact during their sentences.

 

“Life sentencers, and people in safe custody who have been given a punishment that could extend to life in prison, should not be able to use our prisons as a dating central or media platform to boast about their crimes,” Justice Minister Nick Hækkerup said in the statement.

 

“Recent years have seen distasteful examples of inmates who have committed vile crimes gaining contact with very young people to get their sympathy and attention,” Hækkerup added.

 

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In addition to restricting the dating life of criminals serving long term sentences, the proposal would also ban them from speaking freely in public about their crimes if, for example, public discussion could cause harm to victims.

 

That would effectively ban them from activities such as featuring on podcasts or writing about their crimes on social media.

 

The bill, which would need parliamentary backing to become law, could come into effect on January 1st 2022.

 

Conservative parties in the opposition ‘blue bloc’ in parliament on Wednesday expressed initial support for the bill.

 

Justice spokespersons from the Liberal, Conservative and Danish People’s parties all signalled their backing in comments reported by news wire Ritzau.

 

“We have seen far too many cases where it has been most distasteful how it’s been possible to communicate with the outside world from prison, and life sentencers have been able to describe their crimes in the press. That must end,” Liberal justice spokesperson Preben Bang Henriksen said.

 

University of Copenhagen professor Jens Elo Rytter, a human rights specialist, gave newspaper B.T. an appraisal of the proposal.

 

“The ban on establishing new relationships would intervene in the prisoner’s private life and the ban on public statements about one’s crimes, as I understand it in any possible way, including on social media, could raise questions about censorship,” Rytter said.

 

The left-wing Socialist People’s Party (SF), a parliamentary ally to the government, said it would prefer to target individuals who create problems, rather than implement a law that impacts all prisoners serving long term sentences.

 

“The rules should not apply to life sentence prisoners who are serving their sentences in a normal and quiet way,” SF justice spokesperson Karina Lorentzen said in a written statement to Ritzau.

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CRIME

Why Copenhagen police say crime is on the up in Christiania

Crime in Copenhagen’s hippie enclave of Christiania is increasing, police in the capital say following a number of drugs-related arrests.

Why Copenhagen police say crime is on the up in Christiania

Copenhagen Police arrested three men on Saturday for selling cannabis on Pusher Street in the alternative enclave of Christiania, as they continue their efforts to stamp out the area’s former open-air cannabis market. 

According to police, 875 people were arrested for selling cannabis in the first 11 months of 2022, more than in any other year over the past four years. 

A possible explanation for the increase in arrests could be that the rewards for operating hash stands have receded, according to a police spokesperson.

“It is extremely unattractive to stand out there, and therefore a lot of new people come in who have no idea what it is all about. Many of them come from outside the catchment area, and some of them are peripherally associated with a criminal group,” Simon Hansen, head of a Copenhagen Police special unit, told newspaper Politiken.

“It’s a bit – in inverted commas – ‘easier’ for us to catch these people,” he said. 

Around half of the stalls in the street are linked to various gangs and biker gangs, such as Satudarah, Bandidos, Hells Angels and Loyal To Familia, with the rest run by people living in Christiania, the Berlingske newspaper reported earlier this month.

The trend of rising crime occurs against a background of potential housing develop in Christiania, as the enclave’s residents decide on a plan to put affordable housing in the area.

Copenhagen Police last year told news wire Ritzau that the majority of people who are arrested within Christiania come from socially underprivileged or marginalised backgrounds.

They are exploited in gang and biker circles, resulting in them in some cases operating the illicit hash market stalls, according to the police.

Conflicts between organised crime groups have reportedly become more frequently aired in the Pusher Street market.

READ ALSO: Denmark’s ‘freetown’ Christiania hangs onto soul, 50 years on

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