Denmark 2020
01/01/2020: The Danish Government presented the proposals for measures to crack down on Foreign Fighters and keep them away from Denmark under the name "We look after Denmark - 8 measures against foreign fighters". Those measures are summarized as follows: Convicted Foreign Fighters must be able to be issued with a residence ban and a contact ban; The punishment for terrorism and terrorist-like activities must be increased; The Government will ensure that children do not grow up in radicalized environments; The Government will ensure that children do not grow up in radicalized environments; Children born in conflict areas should not automatically have Danish citizenship; Restriction of Foreign Fighters' access to assistance from the Foreign Service; The Government maintains and expands the system of confiscating passports, refusing to issue passports and issuing travel bans; The police and municipalities' preventive work against radicalization is strengthened. (Source)
This package was met witch much skepticism and even criticism among concerned stakeholders regarding Rule of Law compliance and Human Rights considerations. According to Professor of Criminology Kathrine Elmose Jørgensen, the Government's foreign fighter draft will have the consequence that it will become even more difficult to gain access to Foreign Fighters environments in the future. (Source)
22/01/2020: PET came up with a publication entitled "National Risk Assessment of Terrorist Financing in Denmark 2019", which aims to identify, analyze and assess the risks that apply in the area of terrorist financing in Denmark. In this new draft, PET points to a total of 30 risk areas which range widely from specific risks of terrorism financing under the Criminal Code to structural risks of a societal nature. (Source)
23/01/2020: A new Law was issued in the Danish Parliament according to which children of Danish parents who are born in areas where a terrorist organization is a party to an armed conflict should no longer automatically be able to become Danish citizens. The bill is part of the Government's initiative "We look after Denmark - 8 measures against foreign fighters" drafted in January. The Law will enter into force on February 1, 2020. (Source)
20/03/2020: Danish PET alongside the Danish Defence Intelligence Service, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Emergency Management Agency within the Danish Center for Terrorism Analysis, have published the 2020 Assessment of the Terrorist Threat to Denmark according to which the terrorist threat from the Islamic State (IS) has been reduced. This is due, among other things, to the fact that IS no longer has a territory in Syria/Iraq, and that the group's ability to carry out complex, directed terrorist attacks in the West, including in Denmark, has been reduced, among other reasons. IS' official propaganda machine has also been weakened, and both the quantity and quality of propaganda have decreased significantly. Al-Qaeda still has ambitions to hit targets in the West, but does not have the same capabilities as before. The development in the global threat picture is reflected in the attack statistics, which show that since the autumn of 2017 there has been a significant decrease in the number of militant Islamist terrorist attacks in the West. (Source)
02/04/2020: Danish authorities have promulgated The Act on Preventive Measures against Money Laundering and the Financing of Terrorism. Every companies and institutions included in this Act shall therefore identify and assess the risk for money laundering or terrorism financing and report it to the authorities accordingly. (Source)
Furthermore, PET published the "National risk assessment of terrorism financing in the non-profit sector in Denmark 2020" which describes threats and vulnerabilities regarding the risk of terrorist financing in the association and fundraising area in Denmark. This report completes the previous "National Risk Assessment of Terrorism Financing in Denmark 2019" published in January 2020 so authorities, non-profit organizations, financial companies and citizens alike may strengthen the prevention and fight against terrorism financing in the area. (Source)
30/04/2020: A man in his 20's of Turkish background named Abdullah Akbulut, was arrested in a McDonald's parking lot in Copenhagen while attempting to purchase from an undercover PET agent a Glock pistol, two magazines, and 50 rounds of ammunition with the fromal intent to "kill infidels" and to “cut off the heads of police officers”. (Source)
13/05/2020: Gilles de Kerchove, EU Counter-Terrorism coordinator, announced that the pandemic period will certainly be conducive to new terrorist attacks carried out by reassured and emboldened fighters. The health sector of European countries, more vital than ever in the context of the spread of the coronavirus, has been mentioned as a very likely target of “Far Right extremists and Jihadists”. (Source)
07/07/2020: A 23-year-old Danish woman was arrested when she landed at Copenhagen Airport and has been remanded in custody. She was charged with joining the Islamic State in 2016 and thus promoting the terrorist organization's activities. She is also charged with trying to help her sister join IS territory. The woman left Syria in 2019 and was arrested and imprisoned in Türkiye. (Source)
At least 160 individuals from Denmark have reportedly traveled to Iraq or Syria since 2012. Nearly half of these individuals have either returned to Denmark or relocated to another country. (Source)
26/08/2020: In order to to preserve the efforts made by Danish Government to prevent Jihadist nationals from returning to the country, the Law on the deprivation of citizenship of Foreign Fighters adopted on October 14, 2019 will be sustained permanently by authorities although it was supposed to expire on July 1, 2021. So far, the possibility of administrative deprivation of Danish citizenship has been used against five people. (Source)
Even though this Law was a controversial move from Danish authorities, and rushed into adoption, the Danish Parliament ultimately made it possible to permanently revoke citizenship from suspected Foreign Fighters who have the option of dual citizenship on December 18, 2020. (Source)
10/09/2020: Three men involved in the so-called "Drone case" were sentenced to eight years, four and a half years and three years in prison by the Eastern High Court. The case started in 2017 when one of the three convicted men was arrested before the two others in 2018. They were already judged and sentenced in December 2019 yet they appealed the verdict. Although the High Court upheld the 2019 verdict for the two last men, the sentence of the first convict was increased from four to eight years. He will also be deported from Denmark since he is a Turkish citizen as well. The three convicted men allegedly sent drone parts via an intermediary in Turkey to the IS Caliphate. All of this was reportedly done at the behest of Danish terrorist Basil Hassan who is suspected of being behind the attempted murder of Islam critic Lars Hedegaard before joining IS territory where he allegedly died after having a leading role in IS drone program. (Source)
03/11/2020: In reaction to the terrorist attacks that occured in France and Austria, PET declared that they stick to their previous Terrorist Threat Assessment published in March, although the security situation will therefore be closely monitored, and that a number of visible security measures were initiated with increased police presence in a number of cities in Denmark, including Copenhagen. (Source)
13/11/2020: In response to the terrorist attacks that crippled France and Austria, the European Interior Ministers published a Joint Declaration recalling European solidarity against terrorist threat and evoking new measures taken in the fight against terrorism notably the strengthening of the Schengen Area through the digital recording of entries and exits, and closer cooperation with third countries in order to combat terrorist threats. The digital domain was addressed in order to counter extremist propaganda in all its forms, the apology of violence and the financing of hatred and violent extremism. The strengthening of the external borders of the European Union was considered to protect against any intrusion by foreign fighters, in particular through the relevant functionalities of the Schengen Information System (SIS). (Source)
18/12/2020: Türkiye deported back to Denmark a 32-years-old Danish-Palestinian Jihadist that was arrested on January 7, 2020 and held in custody ever since. Jacob el-Ali reportedly left Denmark in 2013 to fight Assad and joined IS in 2014. Although he claims he was coerced into joining the Caliphate, he was remanded in custody in absentia as soon as 2014 for encouraging terror actions and he even tried to recruit his nephew Enes Ciftci. In 2015 he was charged with promoting terror as he was identified in gruesome propaganda clips broadcasted by IS. (Source)
20/12/2020: The Eastern High Court upheld the verdict delivered by the Copenhagen City Court against Sweden-based Syrian terrorist Moyed Al Zoebi who was charged with terror planning on behalf of IS and sentenced to 12 years of jail on May 20, 2019. He intended back then to detonate several bombs in Copenhagen and to stab random targets with kitchen knives. After settling in Sweden as an asylum seeker, he planned to meet a younger co-conspirator at Copenhagen Central Station on November 19, 2016 and was arrested upon his arrival in Denmark yet he never pleaded guilty and dismissed any wrongdoings. He is expected to be expelled from Denmark after serving his time. (Source)