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CRIME

Four Danish teens tried to burn Afghan teen alive

Four Danish boys have been arrested and charged with attempted homicide for trying to burn a 16-year-old Afghan boy alive, South Jutland Police said.

Published: 7 February 2017 12:49 CET
Four Danish teens tried to burn Afghan teen alive
Police said the attack was likely the result of a conflict between the teens. Photo: Colourbox
The four boys are aged 15 and 16 and are ethnic Danes, police said. 
 
According to police, the boys threw a burning bottle filled with petrol at the Afghan boy, who suffered serious burns and is in serious condition. 
 
The incident occurred in the small town of Ry, south of Skanderborg, at around 7pm on Monday. 
 
The four suspects made a preliminary court appearance in Horsens on Tuesday morning but the proceedings were held behind closed doors. 
 
Police cautioned that the attack did not initially appear to be a hate crime based on the Afghan boy’s nationality. 
 
“Based on the currently available information, we are probably looking at a conflict between the five boys, who all live and attend school in Ry. There is no current evidence to suggest that the conflict has anything to do with the boys’ different ethnicities,” a police press release said. 

CRIME

Danish government backs removing children from gang-connected families

Denmark’s government wants authorities to be able to move children out of families in which parents are gang members and is likely to formalise the measure in parliament.

Published: 9 April 2024 13:38 CEST
Danish government backs removing children from gang-connected families

The justice spokesperson with senior coalition partner the Social Democrats, Bjørn Brandenborg, told regional media TV2 Fyn that he wants authorities to have the power to remove children from their families in certain circumstances where the parents are gang members.

Brandenborg’s comments came on Monday, after Odense Municipality said it had spent 226 million kroner since 2009 on social services for eight specific families with gang connections.

“There is simply a need for us to give the authorities full backing and power to forcibly remove children early so we break the food chain and the children don’t become part of gang circles,” he said.

The measure will be voted on in parliament “within a few weeks”, he said.

An earlier agreement on anti-gang crime measures, which was announced by the government last November, includes provisions for measures of this nature, Brandenborg later confirmed to newswire Ritzau.

“Information [confirming] that close family members of a child or young person have been convicted for gang crime must be included as a significant and element in the municipality’s assessment” of whether an intervention is justified, the agreement states according to Ritzau.

The relevant part of November’s political agreement is expected to be voted on in parliament this month.

READ ALSO: Denmark cracks down on gang crime with extensive new agreement

Last year, Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard told political media Altinget that family relations to a gang member could be a parameter used by authorities when assessing whether a child should be forcibly removed from parents.

In the May 2023 interview, Hummelgaard called the measure a “hard and far-reaching measure”.

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