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DANISH MUTILATION CASE IN SOUTH AFRICA

CRIME

Key witness in Danish genitalia case murdered

The wife of the Danish man accused of cutting off women’s sexual organs and storing them in his freezer was to be the prosecution’s star witness but now she’s been shot and killed.

Key witness in Danish genitalia case murdered
The woman was killed in Meseru, the capital of her native Lesotho. Photo: OER Africa/Flickr
Just as South African police said that they had made a breakthrough in their investigation of Peter Frederiksen, a Danish man suspected to be behind a string of gruesome mutilations, the primary witness in the case was killed while waiting for a taxi. 
 
The South African news site Netwerk24 reported that 28-year-old Anna Matsiliso Molise was shot near her home in the Lesotho capital of Maseru on Tuesday. Police have ruled out a robbery as nothing was stolen.
 
“She died on Wednesday in Lesotho,” South African police spokesman Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi told AFP.  “We did offer her protection, but she refused. She was a key witness, but we still have other witnesses who will come forward.”
 
The South African news site News24 reported that Molise was shot four times.
 
“It is suspected to be a hit,” spokesperson Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi told the site. 
 
Molise was in the process of divorcing Frederiksen and was the one who initially put police on his trail. 
 
Molise was also reportedly a victim of Frederiksen’s genital mutilation and told police in mid-September that she had been drugged and attacked while unable to defend herself. 
 
Investigators then found 21 pieces of genitalia in the Dane’s freezer along with surgical tools, anaesthetic and a trove of photos documenting the macabre acts.
 
Earlier this week, South African police hailed a “preliminary breakthrough” in the investigation, saying that officials had identified some of his victims, which include a seven-year-old girl. Investigators also belive that some of the genitals may come from Danish women. 
 
Most of the victims however are believed to have come from Lesotho, a small mountainous kingdom surrounded by South Africa.
 
Frederiksen previously participated in a radio documentary for Danish public broadcaster DR in which he openly detailed performing genital mutilation on his African wife and her friends. 
 
He reportedly fled from Denmark to South Africa to avoid weapons charges and opened a gun shop in the city of Bloemfontein. 
 
Frederiksen has been held in police custody for nearly a month and will appear before a judge again on November 4th.
 
No arrests have been made in Molise's death. 
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CRIME

IN NUMBERS: What are the most common crimes in Copenhagen?

Denmark’s capital is known for being safe – but crime does happen. Here's a look at the most common types of crimes reported in the city, according to national statistics.

IN NUMBERS: What are the most common crimes in Copenhagen?

Copenhagen frequently features high up on rankings of “most liveable city in the world” for many reasons, including how safe the city of about 1.3 million people is. 

In its 2023 Global Liveability Index, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) gave Copenhagen an overall second place behind Austrian capital Vienna.

Both cities received the highest possible score in “Stability”, which is measured based on several indicators, including the prevalence of petty crime and violent crime.

But, of course, even if the city is safe, it doesn’t mean there is no crime in the capital.

Drawing the relevant numbers from national agency Statistics Denmark’s data bank shows a total of 87,978 crimes were reported to police in 2023. That compares to 81,216 crimes reported in 2022, when some Covid-19 restrictions were still in place at the beginning of the year.

It should be noted that the figures refer to crimes reported to police in the Copenhagen Municipality (and not other municipalities which also make up the Greater Copenhagen area such as Frederiksberg, whose residents count towards the city’s population total).

Crimes reported to police (anmeldte forbrydelser in Danish) are recorded by the National Police (Rigspolitiet), from where Statistics Denmark takes the data.

The stats agency also has a data bank for court verdicts (domme), which covers crimes that have received a verdict ranging from prison to a fine to acquittal. These figures are only available nationally in the databank, however, and were therefore not used for this article.

On its website, Statistics Denmark breaks down its national crime figures into four main categories: sexual offences, violent crime, crimes against property and other violations of the criminal law.

The most common type by far among the national data is crimes against property, with up to ten times as many instances as any of the other three types.

There are further crime types that do not fit into these categories, primarily traffic offences and violations of særlov or “special laws”. These include drugs and weapons offences and tax evasion.

READ ALSO: EXPLAINED: How gun control laws work in Denmark

Each of the four main types (sexual offences, violent crime, crimes against property and other violations) have additional subcategories.

These subcategories also appear in the more detailed breakdown by municipality – Copenhagen, in the case of this article.

Usually, it is logical to see which crime falls under which of the four types. For example, rape and all other sexual offences all come under the first type; affray, assault and public order offences under the second; arson, burglary and vandalism the third; and fraud, drug smuggling or perjury the fourth.

Table of reported crimes in Copenhagen Municipality in 2023. Source: Statistics Denmark databank

The above table, a screenshot of data pulled from the Statistics Denmark databank, shows crime reports divided into both the four larger categories, and the many subcategories, broken down into the four quarters of 2023.

The highest row shows the overall number of all crimes reported in Copenhagen in each of the quarters of 2023. The second row relates to violations of the criminal law.

The third row displays “crimes against property”, meaning this type reflects the national data as the most common type of crime reported to police.

Further down the list comes the totals for violent crimes (voldsforbrydelser i alt), while near the bottom of the screen shot (but not the bottom of the list) is the total number of reported sex crimes (seksualforbrydelser i alt), which reaches 698 for last year once each when the four quarters are added together.

READ ALSO: What can Denmark do to protect women at risk from domestic violence?

Once we get into individual crime types, we can see that theft is the most commonly reported. “Other thefts” and “Bicycle theft” fill the fourth and fifth rows on the table.

Adding each of the columns for the four quarters, we can see that 17,316 bicycle thefts were reported in Copenhagen last year.

The next most frequently reported crimes relate to violations of the environmental protection law, miljøloven, followed by fraud (bedrageri) and violations of narcotics laws (lov om euforiserende stoffer).

The other crime type to break 1,000 reports within any given quarter of 2023 is shoplifting etc (butikstyverier mv.).

Vandalism, stealing from cars or boats, and selling stolen goods are the next three most common individual crime types.

The burglary statistics are distinct from reports of the more aggravated type robbery (røveri), which appears further down the list and is in double figures (79, 96, 88, 95) for quarterly reports.

Violations of Denmark’s weapons law – which relates to illegal possession and use of firearms and restricted knives as well as other weapons – were reported to police in Copenhagen a total of 1,539 times in 2023. The quarterly figures can be seen in the row titled Våbenloven.

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