Denmark gives up on state secrets leak case
State prosecutors said yesterday they were abandoning a case against an ex-minister and a former intelligence chief for allegedly revealing state secrets because key evidence was classified and could not be presented in court.
In May 2021, an investigation by several Danish media outlets revealed that the US National Security Agency (NSA) used Danish underwater cables to spy on officials in France, Germany, Norway and Sweden until at least 2014.
Former German chancellor Angela Merkel was among the NSA's targets.
The revelations sparked an international scandal and the four countries demanded explanations from Washington and Copenhagen.
Claus Hjort Frederiksen, who was defence minister between 2016 and 2019, and Lars Findsen, head of the Danish Defence Intelligence Service from 2015 to 2020, had faced charges as part of ensuing probes.
In October, the country's supreme court ruled that the case against them, which was due to be brought to trial in the coming weeks, could not be held entirely behind closed doors.
Prosecutors argued that a public trial risked exposing state secrets.
Vocabulary: statsadvokat – state prosecutor
Ørsted in ‘catastrophic’ day on stock exchange after devaluation
Denmark’s energy giant Ørsted saw its stock price collapse by 25 percent yesterday after the company devalued its US activities by an amount equivalent to 28.4 million kroner.
The company, which is owned by the Danish state, reduced the value of its US businesses because high prices and interest rates reduced the expected profitability of two projects, Ocean 1 and Ocean 2.
That resulted in a decision not to go ahead with construction of the two wind parks.
Ørsted builds and operates offshore and onshore wind farms, bioenergy, solar cell and energy storage facilities as well as facilities for the production of renewable hydrogen and green fuels.
Vocabulary: nedskrivninger – write-downs
Man gets three years in prison for smuggling 600 kilos of cannabis
A 37-year-old man from Thisted in North Jutland has been sentenced to three years in prison for smuggling 600 kilos of cannabis into Denmark from Germany between October 2022 and February this year.
The man pleaded guilty at a trial in Esbjerg yesterday, national economic crime unit NSK said in a statement.
“The conviction relied on thorough investigation work and I’m pleased that the accused decided to confess to his part of the illegalities in the case,” NSK prosecutor Morten Rasmussen said in the statement.
The 37-year-old was arrested in a raid by police on September 11th, in which a total of 15 people were withheld.
Vocabulary: at smugle – to smuggle
Foreigners get 'worse' treatment for diabetes than Danes
An Aarhus University study has found that people of immigrant background with diabetes in Denmark have poorer regulation and worse treatment of their condition than those born in the country.
The study of some 250,000 people with type 2 diabetes has exposed possible inequalities in the health system.
In line with results from earlier studies, the researchers found that type 2 (late onset) diabetes is more common in most immigrant groups than it is among Danes. But it also found that treatment and disease control is lagging for these groups.
“It’s crucial that we work to find the causes of these inequalities if we are to have any hope of tackling the inequality,” Anders Isaksen, clinical researcher at Steno Diabetes Center and Aarhus University, said in a statement.
Vocabulary: diabetes/sukkersyge – diabetes
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