Denmark frees ex-intelligence chief accused of leaks

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On Thursday, Denmark's Supreme Court approved the release of an ex-military intelligence head who had been detained for more than two months on suspicion of leaking classified information.

The inquiry against Lars Findsen is confidential, but it comes after a scandal involving the Danish intelligence agencies' collaboration with the US National Security Agency (NSA).

Furthermore, former Defense Minister Claus Hjort Frederiksen is also being investigated for allegedly disclosing state secrets in the matter.

The Supreme Court revealed that the former head of the FE military intelligence service, Findsen, "must be released."

In a court statement, the latter found that there were "well-founded suspicions" that Findsen, who was placed on leave in 2020, had violated an article of the law on state secrets.

"I am naturally happy and grateful for the Supreme Court's decision," Findsen said in a statement released by his lawyer, denying all charges against him. 

On December 8, 2021, he was arrested at Copenhagen airport. Three other former and current intelligence officials were also arrested but released shortly thereafter.

Findsen and several other intelligence officers had been suddenly fired by then-Defense Minister Trine Bramsen, in August 2020. However, the reason for their dismissal was not disclosed. 

But the government accused them of hiding "essential and crucial information" and providing "false information to the authorities" between 2014 and 2020, amid suspicions his service was conducting illegal surveillance.

Spying scandal 

The NSA exploited Danish underwater cables to eavesdrop on authorities in Germany, Sweden, Norway, and France until at least 2014, according to an investigation by numerous Danish media outlets, including public broadcaster DR.

Angela Merkel, the former German chancellor, was one of the NSA's targets. The discoveries triggered an international outcry, prompting the four governments to seek answers from Washington and Copenhagen.

The revelations made by DR were based on a top-secret Danish military intelligence study known as "Operation Dunhammer". After the Edward Snowden crisis, it was created by a secret internal working group at FE and handed to top FE management in May 2015.

Hjort Frederiksen, who served as Defense Minister from 2016 to 2019, has also been implicated in the controversy and is accused of leaking state secrets.

He verified that at the end of the 1990s, former US President Bill Clinton and former Danish Prime Minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen struck an agreement on the usage of underwater cables.

"That's what I understood. That's how it is. From what I know," he told TV2 in December. Among other embarrassing intelligence details, he also revealed that the agents suspended in 2020 were those who had been in direct contact with the Americans on the matter of the underwater cables.