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Why case of ‘spy’ sent to Syria is causing headaches for Danish government

Spanish courts say Ahmed Samsam fought for Islamic State but from his prison cell he insists he worked undercover for Denmark's spy agencies -- which have left him high and dry.

Published: 26 January 2023 12:14 CET
Why case of 'spy' sent to Syria is causing headaches for Danish government
A 2020 file photo of Adam, a friend of Ahmed Samsam. Samsam is serving a prison sentence for joining Isis but he insists he worked undercover for Denmark's spy agencies. Photo: Asger Ladefoged/Ritzau Scanpix

The affair is increasingly embarrassing for Denmark’s intelligence services and the government has repeatedly rejected calls for an inquiry.

Samsam says he was working for Denmark’s secret service PET and military intelligence service FE in Syria in 2013 and 2014, spying on foreign jihadist fighters.

Several investigations by Danish media have backed him up, concluding the 34-year-old Dane of Syrian origin never joined IS.

But the two intelligence agencies have refused to say whether he was working for them.

Samsam, who has a long criminal record, travelled to Syria in 2012 of his own accord to fight the regime.

Danish authorities investigated him after his return but did not press any charges.

He was then sent to the war zone on several occasions with money and equipment provided by PET and later FE, according to Danish media outlets DR and Berlingske.

They based their reports on anonymous witnesses and money transfers wired to Samsam.

In 2017, threatened by Copenhagen thugs in a settling of scores unrelated to his trips to Syria, Samsam headed to Spain.

There, he was arrested by Spanish police, who were surprised to find pictures of him on Facebook posing with the IS flag.

Samsam was sentenced the following year to eight years in prison for having joined IS.

“When he was arrested in Spain in 2017 he was 100 percent sure that he was going to be helped by Danish authorities”, his lawyer in Denmark Erbil Kaya told AFP.

But the Danes never intervened.

“It’s very difficult to prove you’ve been an agent. It’s not like he has a payslip or employment contract”, said Kaya.

Samsam has been serving his sentence, since commuted to six years, in Denmark since 2020.

Last year, he filed a lawsuit against Denmark’s intelligence services to force them to acknowledge his role with them.

The case is due to be heard in August.

“It’s very rare to leave an agent to serve a long prison sentence”, Magnus Ranstorp, a terrorism expert and research director at the Swedish Defence University, told AFP.

He said the fact that Samsam was arrested in Spain may have complicated his situation.

In a case like this, “an intelligence service would prefer to sweep this under the rug”, Ranstorp said.

“These are things that can’t be exposed in court. Even if the agent is no longer of any use, he shouldn’t attract any attention.”

During last year’s election campaign, Danish politicians across the board said they wanted an official inquiry.

But the new left-right government in power since December has rejected it.

“To protect our open society and democracy, it is essential that nothing that concerns the intelligence services be revealed”, the justice ministry told AFP.

Samsam’s lawyer Kaya condemned the government’s stance as “incomprehensible”.

Samsam “has the impression that the authorities don’t want to help him and are doing everything to hide the truth, he added.

“The truth will be revealed one day and I think this case will be called our ‘Dreyfus affair'”, the lawyer said, referring to the French criminal justice scandal at the turn of the 20th century.

Samsam recently went on a one-week hunger strike from his prison cell to protest “the inhumane conditions of his imprisonment”.

In December, the two intelligence services said they never divulged the identity of informants “both for the sake of the sources themselves and for the services’ operations”.

Being an informant or agent does not grant immunity from conviction if illegal acts have been committed.

“Deny, deny, deny! That’s the golden rule for these services. They never reveal their sources or their methods”, said Ranstorp.

The case was “harmful to their reputation, but they’ll survive it”, he said.

Several Danish opposition parties are still calling for an investigative commission.

And like with any good spy story, a movie is in the works.

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SOCIAL DEMOCRATS

EXPLAINED: How immigration speech has split Denmark’s Social Democrats

A speech about immigration and integration, given by a member of Denmark’s ruling Social Democrats in parliament, has caused an uproar among local party representatives but the party leadership, including Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, is sticking to its guns.

Published: 25 April 2024 17:03 CEST
EXPLAINED: How immigration speech has split Denmark’s Social Democrats

Internal dispute within Denmark’s Social Democrats has gained pace and drawn comments from Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, after one of the party’s MPs recently made a divisive speech in parliament.

Frederik Vad, who is the immigration spokesperson with the party, the senior partner in the coalition government, said earlier this month during a speech in parliament that Denmark’s immigration debate had to make an “admission”.

“That is an admission that work, education, a house, participation in associations and a clean criminal record are not enough on their own if you are also using your position to undermine Danish society from within,” Vad said.

“A parallel society is no longer a housing area in [underprivileged area] Ishøj. A could alos be a table at the canteen in a state agency or a pharmacy in [affluent] North Zealand,” he said, using the term used to refer to areas of the country subject to special integration laws.

To qualify as ‘parallel societies’, housing areas must have a population of more than 1,000 people, of which more than half are of “non-Western” origin, and must fulfil two of four criteria. For areas with fewer than 50 percent ‘non-Western’ populations, another term – ‘vulnerable area’ – is used instead.

The comments have received criticism from local Social Democratic politicians, initially more junior politicians such as town councillors and later gaining momentum with some city mayors speaking out against Vad, as reported by broadcaster DR.

“Frederik Vad is stigmatising a large part of the population that consists of well-educated, well-integrated and active citizens who contribute to Denmark every single day,” Musa Kekec, a Social Democratic member of the municipal council in Ballerup, told DR.

“We do not appreciate it. It is creating a new myth that integration has failed and that it’s no longer good enough to get an education, speak Danish, contribute to society and have a job – more is required,” he said.

Kekec is one of 18 elected local Social Democratic officials to have sent a letter to the party leadership earlier this week, objecting to Vad’s position.

“It’s important for us to show that we disagree with the rhetoric and suspicion being spread on the part of Frederik Vad,” Kekec said.

The internal conflict over the issue between parliamentary and local Social Democratic politicians is unusual in a party known for a culture in which all members loyally stick to the course set out by party leadership.

Merete Amdisen, the mayor of Ishøj – the municipality singled out by Vad in his comments – was the first mayor to publicly reject them, but several others have since added their voices to the dissent.

“I think you should think very carefully when you speak about people who go to work every single day, look after their children, integrate themselves in society and take part in our associations, in fact do everything we want them to, and who we also happen to need on our labour market,” Gladsaxe mayor Trine Græse told DR.

“I was actually offended – not personally, because I’m not in the target group. But when I heard what he said, I thought ‘that’s not a nice thing for him to say’,” she said.

“Christiansborg politicians should use their powerful voices with consideration and respect for others. Generalisations and pointing the finger at citizens with a different ethnic background as potentially dangerous are the wrong way to go,” the mayor of Furesø, Ole Bondo Christensen said.

In comments earlier this week, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said there was “full support” for Vad from the party leadership.

“There is an ongoing immigration debate within the Social Democrats and in Denmark, but the Social Democrats stand firm on the immigration policy that is currently being pursued in Denmark,” the PM told DR.

“I do not see any stigmatising comments from Frederik. I think he does a good job of pointing out that — of course — you cannot speak generally about everyone. On the contrary, many [immigrants] are doing very well. But those who, for example, commit crime, violence, or are members of [Islamist organisation] Hizb ut-Tahrir, are against our democracy. That is a lack of integration and we must then be able to discuss it,” she said.

Vad has not presented any data to support the claim that people of non-Western immigrant backgrounds with high levels of education and employment are involved in activities of the kind described by Frederiksen.

The junior Social Democratic MP defended his comments by saying they were not a deviation from the existing party line.

“That line is that we have a few problems in some pockets of our society with some people who are educated, have a job and a clean criminal record, yet bring some values ​​with them to work which are problematic,” he said to DR.

“It makes me sad if there are people in the party who think I said something wrong. Personally, I don’t think I have. I made a nuanced statement,” he said.

“People who make an effort, work their socks off, and integrate [into society] with their children should receive nothing but respect and equality,” he said.

“But the people who insist on bringing a culture of honour to work, or who don’t think you need to subscribe to women’s freedom and equality to be part of this society, should see nothing but a hammer falling,” he said.

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