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Head of Danish security agency PET steps down

UPDATED: Ahead of the release of a report on authorities' reactions to the February shootings in Copenhagen, the Justice Ministry announced that Jens Madsen will no longer lead PET.

Published: 6 May 2015 21:22 CEST
Head of Danish security agency PET steps down
The Justice Ministry announced Madsen's departure on Wednesday. Photo: Mads Nissen/Scanpix
The head of Denmark's intelligence agency on Wednesday stepped down as an investigation criticised parts of the police response to February's deadly twin attacks in Copenhagen.
 
"After careful consideration, I have agreed with the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Justice and the National Commissioner of Police that I will now undertake new tasks to develop Danish police," Jens Madsen of the Danish Security and Intelligence Service (PET) said in a statement.
 
His resignation came hours before the publication of a police report that revealed it took almost four hours from the moment gunman Omar El-Hussein shot dead a filmmaker outside a cultural centre, until police were deployed outside Copenhagen's main synagogue, where a Jewish man was later killed.
 
"That is too long, it's obviously not satisfactory. It can't be explained," Justice Minister Mette Frederiksen said at a press conference.
 
She declined to comment on whether Madsen was stepping down as a result of the delayed police response, saying only that she "noted" his resignation. He was appointed to the position in January last year.
 
By the time El-Hussein approached the synagogue — hours after he failed to enter an event on Islam and free speech — six police had been posted there but they were unable to stop him from killing an unarmed Jewish security guard.
 
El-Hussein, 22, was killed in a shootout with police in the early hours of February 15.
 
He had been released early from prison two weeks before the attacks after serving a term for aggravated assault, raising fears he may have become radicalised behind bars.
 
Despite prison services flagging him up as being at risk of radicalisation, PET said it had "no reason" to believe he was planning the attacks.
 
Madsen took on leadership of PET on January 1st, 2014 after his predecessor Jakob Scharf stepped down in the midst of a scandal involving former Justice Minister Morten Bødskov lying to parliament about security risks related to a parliamentary committee's planned visit to Christiania.

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EUROPEAN UNION

Denmark backs EU over Iran sanctions after murder plots

The EU hit Iran's intelligence services with sanctions Tuesday after accusing Tehran of being behind plots to assassinate regime opponents on Dutch, Danish and French soil.

Published: 9 January 2019 10:24 CET
Denmark backs EU over Iran sanctions after murder plots
Danish police temporarily closed bridges during a security operation on September 28th. Photo: Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix

The move by the 28-nation bloc was announced as the Dutch government said it believed Iran was behind the murders of two dissidents in 2015 and 2017.

“Very encouraging that (the) EU has just agreed on new targeted sanctions against Iran in response to hostile activities and plots being planned and perpetrated in Europe, including Denmark,” Danish Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said.

The “EU stands united — such actions are unacceptable and must have consequences,” he tweeted.

Sanctions include the freezing of funds and other financial assets of the Iranian intelligence ministry and individuals, officials said.

“No other countries have parts of their intelligence services on a terror list [in the EU, ed.]. So this is a very clear signal,” Foreign Minister Anders Samuelsen said according to Ritzau’s report, adding that the sanctions, which come into effect Wednesday, will “have consequences for those who cooperate with (the targets of the sanctions)”.

But Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif pointed the finger at European nations he said were harbouring terrorists.

“Accusing Iran does not release Europe from its responsibility for hosting terrorists,” he said in a tweet.

Denmark led efforts for sanctions after allegations that Tehran tried to kill three Iranian dissidents on Danish soil.

According to Danish police intelligence agency PET, Iran planned to carry out an operation against a group of exiled Iranians in the town of Ringsted on Zealand.

A manhunt related to the alleged plot against three Iranians suspected of belonging to the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahvaz (ASMLA) led to the shutdown of bridges to Sweden, as well as ferries, on September 28th.

France last year imposed sanctions on two suspected Iranian agents and others from Iran's intelligence and security ministry.

The French security services concluded that the head of operations at the Iranian intelligence ministry had ordered a plot to bomb a rally of the People's Mujahedeen of Iran (MEK) opposition group in a suburb of Paris in June last year — which Tehran strongly denied.

“When the sanctions were announced, the Netherlands, together with the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Denmark and Belgium, met Iranian authorities,” Dutch Foreign Minister Stef Blok said.

The meeting conveyed “serious concerns regarding Iran's probable involvement in these hostile acts on EU territory,” Blok said in a letter to parliament in The Hague, also signed by Interior Minister Kajsa Ollongren.

“Iran is expected to cooperate fully in removing the present concerns and, where necessary, aiding in criminal investigations,” the letter said.

“If such cooperation is not forthcoming, further sanctions cannot be ruled out,” it added.

The EU has previously trodden cautiously on Iran as it sought to save a beleaguered nuclear deal with Tehran after the US withdrew last year and imposed new sanctions.

Dutch ministers said that at a meeting with Iranian officials “it was emphasised that the measures were not linked” to the Iran nuclear deal.

“Nevertheless, Iran will be held to account for all matters that affect EU and international security interests” including the 2015 and 2017 assassinations in the Netherlands, the letter said.

“We will continue to support the nuclear agreement provided that Iran complies with it. The agency that is monitoring this says that they are. It is also in European interests for the agreement to be kept,” Samuelsen commented.

Tehran blames the ASMLA for an attack on a military parade in the Iranian city of Ahvaz on September 22nd, when militants sprayed the crowd with gunfire and killed 24 people.

The MEK, which has a history of attacks inside the Islamic republic, was considered a terrorist group until 2009 by European authorities and until 2012 by the United States, where members of President Donald Trump's administration have had close ties with the movement.

The MEK-linked National Council of Resistance of Iran called the EU sanctions “a positive, necessary but insufficient step” and called for the bloc to expel all of Tehran's “agents” on European soil.

“Three decades of experience show that the mullahs only understand the language of firmness,” it said in a statement.

Last June, the Netherlands expelled two Iranian embassy workers in connection with the murders.

Tehran at the time protested the expulsion as an “unfriendly and destructive move” and threatened to retaliate.

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