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CRIME

Danish biker gang leader convicted in triple murder case

A highly-placed member of biker gang Bandidos has been convicted of a triple murder in Copenhagen in 2015.

Published: 10 May 2017 12:23 CEST
Danish biker gang leader convicted in triple murder case
The apartment block in Frederiksberg where the crimes were committed. File photo: Mathias Løvgreen Bojesen/Scanpix

A second gang member has been convicted of accessory to murder, while a third was found guilty of possessing firearms, reports Politiken.

Police have described the murders, which were carried out while the victims slept, as “liquidations”, reports the newspaper.

According to police, the men's killers climbed a scaffolding to get into an apartment in the Frederiksberg neigbourhood, where they shot the victims as they slept.

READ ALSO: Trial of gruesome Copenhagen triple murder begins

The 34-year-old convicted man, whose role within the Bandidos hierarchy is given the name “minister for war” (krigsminister), did not answer any questions considered to be key to the case, including regarding possession of a revolver, reports Politiken.

This is considered to be a key factor of his conviction by the jury at Frederiksberg court.

The footprint of a Fred Perry shoe was also one of the decisive pieces of evidence.

A 27-year-old man who is the brother-in-law of the convicted man was acquitted of murder but found guilty of being in possession of a revolver used in the crime.

The 34-year-old is reported to have laughed with his defence lawyer in court shortly before the verdict was read.

The third convicted man, aged 25, was found guilty of being an accomplice to the crime but acquitted of being one of the three people that climbed a scaffolding before gaining access to the Frederiksberg apartment on November 11th 2015 to carry out the killings.

Mike Vinther, Philip Rasmussen and Suhaib Jaffar were shot to death by a revolver and shotgun in the early hours of the morning.

Nine people were initially arrested in April 2016 following investigation of the murders.

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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