Arrests made across Denmark as police 'foil terror attack on European soil'
Four 'alleged Hamas members' have been arrested over a suspected plot to carry out a major terror attack in Europe, police in Denmark have said.
Seven arrests were made in Germany, Denmark and The Netherlands on Thursday on suspicion of conspiring to carry out an "act of terror", police in Copenhagen said on Thursday. German prosecutors said four of the seven suspects were members of Hamas and that the plot was focused on Jewish institutions.
Of the seven, three were arrested in Germany, three in Denmark and one in Holland, prosecutors said. They came as the country upgraded terror alerts to The second highest on its five-step grade, citing the ongoing conflict between Israel and Gaza.
While the motive for the alleged terror attack has not been given, Israeli media are currently reporting the suspects were operatives 'working on behalf of Hamas'. The claim was also repeated by the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on X. However, Danish officials have yet to confirm this.
Flemming Drejer, operative head of Denmark’s Security and Intelligence Service, known by its acronym PET, said that Denmark was not changing the terror threat level, which has been at “serious,” the second-highest level, since 2010. He added that the case had “threads abroad” and “was related to criminal gangs,” singling out the banned gang Loyal to Familia.
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In January 2020, a Danish court upheld a nationwide police ban on the gang, saying that the LTF should be dissolved as illegal under Denmark’s constitution. The gang had been behind feuds, violence, robberies, extortion and drug sales in the Danish capital and “had used violence and illegal means to achieve its goal,” the Copenhagen District Court said then.
In September 2018, police in Denmark issued a temporary ban against the LTF and said anyone seen wearing its logo could face prosecution. ”Persons abroad have been charged,” he said.
“It is a serious situation,” Drejer said during a press conference, adding the arrests were “carried out in close collaboration with our foreign partners,” and said those arrested were part of “a network.” He said police had “a special focus” on Jewish institutions but did not elaborate.
He added that the suspects would face a custody hearing within 24 hours, likely behind “double closed doors,” meaning that he could not give details about the case, any target or motive. “This is extremely serious ,” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said at a European Union summit in Brussels. “It shows the situation we are in in Denmark. Unfortunately.”
“It is absolutely true when both (Denmark’s intelligence agencies) say that there is a high risk in Denmark,” Frederiksen said. “It is of course completely unacceptable in relation to Israel and Gaza, that there is someone who takes a conflict somewhere else in the world into Danish society.”
In the Netherlands, broadcaster NOS reported that a 57-year-old Dutch man was arrested in Rotterdam based on a request from German authorities. Earlier this month, the European Union’s home affairs commissioner, Ylva Johansson, warned that Europe faced a “huge risk of terrorist attacks” over the Christmas holiday period due to the fallout from the war between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Denmark’s foreign intelligence service, known as FE, reported Thursday in its annual assessment for 2023 that “the war between Israel and Hamas has once again shown that unresolved conflicts in Europe’s immediate area can escalate rapidly and create widespread regional instability.”
In July 2022, a gunman at the huge Field’s shopping center on the outskirts of Copenhagen killed three people and injured seven. The man, who believed the victims were zombies, was charged with murder and attempted murder and ultimately sentenced in July to detention in a secure medical facility.
In 2015, a 22-year-old Danish Muslim gunman killed two people and wounded five others at a free speech event and a synagogue in Copenhagen.
Earlier this month, the Danish parliament passed a law making it illegal to desecrate any holy text, after a handful of anti-Islam activists carried out public desecrations of the Quran, sparking angry demonstrations in Muslim countries.
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