There is a legal case in Denmark so complex that the courts refuse to rule on it. This Wednesday, November 8, following an unprecedented trial, Danish justice refused to deliver a verdict on the case of Ahmed Samsam. This 34-year-old Dane of Syrian origin claims to have been an informer for Danish intelligence in Syria. However, he is serving a prison sentence for belonging to the Islamic State group.
With a long criminal record, he is suing the secret services (PET) and military intelligence (FE) in a case that is captivating the Scandinavian country. Samsam claims to have been employed by the Danish secret service and sent to Syria in 2013 and 2014 to inform them about foreign jihadist fighters. He was arrested and sentenced to 8 years in prison for “membership of the Islamic State group” in 2018 by the Spanish justice system. He had settled there in order, according to him, to escape delinquents from Copenhagen. A sentence that he is currently serving in Denmark and which has been reduced to six years.
During the trial held in September, the intelligence services emphasized that they could neither confirm nor deny the identity of their informants. “This harms (their) ability to use sources, protect them and prevent terrorism,” insisted their counsel, Peter Biering, at the opening of the hearing. “It’s a matter of national security.”
Throughout the trial targeting the Danish secret services, the plaintiff constantly repeated, relying on witnesses and journalistic investigations which support his claims, that he had not been a jihadist fighter in Syria, but an indicator. His lawyers hoped that a legal victory in Denmark would make it possible to request a review of the Spanish conviction.
But for the Copenhagen court handling the case, he did not provide enough evidence to demonstrate that his case should be reopened in Spain. Even if cooperation between him and the Danish secret services was proven, this “would not have led to a different outcome of the criminal proceedings” in Spain, the court argues. The veracity of Samsam’s claims has therefore not been examined.
In Denmark, Samsam seems to have obtained the support of public opinion after the press revelations. He does not deny having traveled to his country of origin on his own, during the civil war in 2012 to fight the regime of Bashar al-Assad. On his return, the Danish justice system took an interest in his stay but the case was closed. The Dane claims to have subsequently been sent several times to the war zone with money and equipment provided by the PET then the FE, according to information relayed by the DR and Berlingske media, which rely on anonymous testimonies and bank transfers. He was then arrested in 2017 by Spanish police in Malaga where, according to the country’s authorities, he was trying to acquire weapons with his brother. After his arrest, police discovered photos of him on Facebook with the IS flag.
In the meantime, the affair is at an impasse and is embarrassing the political class: in Parliament, a preliminary commission of inquiry launched in February to shed light on this unprecedented case was discreetly buried in June.