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CRIME

Danish court gives 16-year-old five years in prison after terror conviction

The district court in Danish town Holbæk on Thursday sentenced a 16-year-old boy to five and a half years in prison after he was found guilty of trying to recruit a friend to a Neo-Nazi organisation.

Published: 11 May 2023 16:18 CEST
Danish court gives 16-year-old five years in prison after terror conviction
A court in Holbæk has sentenced a 16-year-old to over five year in prison after he was found guilty of terror offences. File photo: Signe Goldmann/Ritzau Scanpix

The boy was found guilty on a number of charges under Denmark’s criminal paragraph 114, also known as the “terror paragraph”. He was found not guilty of other charges in the trial.

Because Denmark’s age of criminal responsibility is 15, he can be sentenced as an adult.

He was convicted of trying to recruit a friend to the far-right extremist group Feuerkrieg Division, but found not guilty of joining the group himself with the intention of committing an act of terror.

Although he is a member of the extremist group, the court did not find it proven that he joined with the intent of committing one or more acts of terror.

In addition to the attempt to recruit a friend, he was found guilty of distributing bomb and weapons manuals and other extremist material via the Telegram messaging app.

He also guided others on organisation within the group and assisted in writing a pamphlet about Feuerkrieg Division, the court found.

The five-and-a-half year sentence is longer than the five years argued for by the state prosecutor during the trial.

READ ALSO: EXPLAINED: What do the Danish words used in crime investigations mean?

“It says something about the seriousness of this case that he has got five and a half years in prison even though he did these things as a 15-year-old. I think it’s a clear verdict,” special prosecutor Rune Rydik said after the sentence was pronounced.

His defence lawyer Lasse Martin Dueholm argued for no more than two years in prison or “the court’s mildest sentence”. The defence, prosecution and court all cited the boy’s age as a mitigating factor.

He was arrested in April 2022 when police searched his bedroom at his parents’ home in western Zealand. Officers found a Feuerkrieg Division flag, a flag and armband with Nazi symbols and a copy of the manifest Mein Kampf, written by Adolf Hitler in the 1920s.

His mother was present for the verdict and sentencing at Holbæk District Court on Thursday. He denied guilt on all charges throughout the trial and has chosen to appeal the verdict, Dueholm confirmed. He hopes to be acquitted or given a milder sentence at a high court appeal, the lawyer said.

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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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