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DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS

Danish authorities back arms smuggler’s India extradition

Danish prosecutors said Friday they have recommended the extradition to India of a smuggler who air-dropped weapons to villagers in 1995.

Published: 23 June 2023 16:28 CEST
Danish authorities back arms smuggler's India extradition
A photo taken on April 10, 2010 shows Niels Holck of Denmark speaking to media in Hillerød. Photo: KELD NAVNTOFT / SCANPIX DENMARK / AFP

A Danish court rejected prosecutors’ previous request to send Niels Holck, 61, to India, ruling he risked being subjected to abuse.

Holck has admitted to air-dropping four tonnes of weapons to West Bengal in 1995 to help the locals fight the government.

He was the only smuggler who managed to escape after the Indian Air Force intercepted the returning plane.

The other smugglers — five Russians and a Briton — were sentenced in Calcutta to life imprisonment in 2000, but all were eventually released.

It is now up to the Danish court to decide whether to extradite Holck.

“Based on the information available to us and the investigations that have been carried out, we believe that the conditions set out in the Extradition Act have been met and we are now taking the case to court recommending the extradition of Niels Holck” to India, prosecutor Henriette Rosenborg Larsen said.

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DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS

Argentinian president Milei to visit Denmark and meet PM Frederiksen

The President of Argentina Javier Milei is scheduled to arrive in Copenhagen on Sunday for a visit to Denmark during which he will meet Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen.

Published: 12 April 2024 15:31 CEST
Argentinian president Milei to visit Denmark and meet PM Frederiksen

The visit has been announced at an Argentinian government briefing and reported by Danish newspaper Dagbladet Information but is yet to be confirmed by Copenhagen.

Information writes that Milei, according to reports in Argentina, has taken a medical so that he can participate in a demonstration flight in an F-16 fighter aircraft.

A deal was recently agreed between Denmark and Argentina over the sale of 24 F-16s to the South American country, with the final contract for the sale to be signed “at a later date”, according to the March 26th announcement of the agreement.

Milei, a radical libertarian, was sworn in as Argentina’s president in December last year. He has since introduced a series of far-reaching interventions economic interventions including halving the value of the peso and cutting state subsidies on fuel and transport, with the intention of bringing extreme inflation under control.

An admirer of former US president Donald Trump, Milei’s inauguration in December was attended by far-right politicians including Hungarian prime minister Victor Orbán.

Other leaders present included Chile’s president, Gabriel Boric, Spain’s King Felipe VI, and Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky. 

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