A Russian man who has been held in pre-trial detention in Denmark for six months in connection with a threat against Billund Airport in April this year has been charged with possession of explosives and disrupting infrastructure, newswire Ritzau reports after court proceedings in Kolding on Thursday.
The man is also accused of an aggravated form of theft.
The charges were revealed following the proceedings at Kolding City Court, where the man’s pre-trial detention was extended for a further six weeks.
South East Jutland Police have not previously allowed the charges against the 37-year-old man to be made public. They were stated by his defence lawyer during Thursday’s hearing, which was not closed to the media.
The man was arrested after handing over an object to police at Billund Airport on April 20th. He declared that the object contained explosives, police have previously said.
A controlled detonation by police experts later destroyed the package.
Police have not confirmed whether the package actually contained explosives, but prosecutor Bettina Wagner said at Thursday’s court hearing that police are awaiting a supplementary declaration relating to the dangers of the highly explosive substance TATP.
Investigators have connected the case to an explosion at an ATM outside the nearby Legoland theme park earlier on the same day.
The suspect took part in the hearing via a video link from prison in Nyborg. He read a pre-prepared statement which was translated from Russian to Danish by an interpreter.
In the statement, he said he did not want to return to Russia because of threats to his “life and health”. He also said he had claimed asylum in Finland.
The man’s defence lawyer has told newswire Ritzau that he partly admits the charges against him, without giving further detail.
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