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Spy or jihadist? Denmark probes jailed man's case

AFP
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Spy or jihadist? Denmark probes jailed man's case
File photo of a prison in Denmark. Photo: Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix

Danish lawmakers decided on Friday to investigate the case of a man who says he spied for Denmark in Syria, but wound up jailed by Spain over alleged IS group ties.

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Ahmed Samsam, 34, a Danish national, claims he was working for Denmark's secret service PET and military intelligence service FE in Syria in 2013 and 2014, spying on foreign jihadist fighters.

But he says they left him high and dry after he was arrested while on a trip to Spain in 2017, accused of himself supporting the Islamic State (IS) group.

Convicted and serving his sentence in Denmark since 2020, he has filed a lawsuit against the two intelligence services to force them to acknowledge his role with them. The case is due to be heard in August.

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The new left-right government in power since December has rejected calls for an inquiry. But all of the other parties in parliament agreed on Friday to back a probe by the assembly's Investigative Committee.

"A large minority -- in other words all parties not in the government -- want to press ahead with an inquiry into the Samsam affair", the chairman of the committee, Ole Birk Olesen, told Danish news agency Ritzau.

A total of 60 MPs must be in favour of an inquiry for one to be opened, and the nine opposition parties hold a total of 85.

Samsam, who has a long criminal record, travelled to Syria in 2012 of his own accord to fight against the regime.

Danish authorities investigated him after his return but did not press any charges.

He was then sent to the war zone on several occasions with money and equipment provided by PET and later FE, according to investigations conducted by Danish media outlets DR and Berlingske.

They based their reports on anonymous witnesses and money transfers wired to Samsam.

In December, the two intelligence services said they never divulge the identity of informants "both for the sake of the sources themselves and for the services' operations".

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