ESPIONAGE – During various interviews given between 2020 and 2021, the former Danish Minister of Defense Claus Hjort Fredriksen affirmed that the secret services of his country had helped those of the United States to spy on several European leaders, and this for several years. The media The Associated Press just revealed that the minister was recently indicted for leaking a state secret. He faces 12 years in prison.
Aged 75, Claus Hjort Fredriksen has been retired from political life since November. He is a former member of the Liberal Party of Denmark and served as Minister of Defense from 2016 to 2019.
“Danish intelligence services helped the NSA”
In October 2013, the English newspaper The Guardian revealed to the world the scandal of telephone tapping carried out in secret by the National Security Agency (NSA). The cellphones of no less than 35 world leaders were monitored by the Americans. In an interview given in 2020, former minister Hjort Fredriksen initiated the idea that the Danish intelligence services would have played an active Europe-wide role in these espionage operations.
Shortly after this claim, in May 2021, the Denmarks Radio (DR) television channel began to investigate. Baptized “Operation Dunhammer”, journalistic investigations confirmed the existence of a secret agreement between the two respective intelligence services. It is now established that from 2012 to 2014, at least, Washington used Denmark’s submarine cable network to listen to the heads of state of four neighboring European countries (Germany, Sweden, Norway, France).
Again questioned by the media in December 2021, Hjort Fredriksen assured that the agreement on the use of cables was concluded in the late 1990s by US President Bill Clinton and Danish Prime Minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen. Allegations that make him incur a prison sentence today.
“I surely risk prison for these allegations”
By conducting this interview, the politician knew what to expect: “I surely risk a prison sentence by making these allegations” he said. On Tuesday, February 21, the Minister of Justice of Denmark effectively declared admissible the complaint lodged against him. The recently retired minister is charged with divulging state secrets.
“I deny having exceeded the limits of freedom of expression which is mine as a politician, and I have not revealed any alleged state secrets. And that’s all “, denied the person on his Facebook account. Last year, the Kingdom’s government tried to obtain the lifting of Hjort Frederiksen’s parliamentary immunity, without success. But he did not stand for re-election this year, “my parliamentary immunity has therefore expired”, he continued to explain on his social networks, “The way is therefore clear for the Minister of Justice to decide to initiate proceedings”.
The prosecution requested the closed session. “The case concerns highly confidential information which cannot be made public”justified the prosecutor Jakob Berger Nielsen in a press release.
No trial date has yet been set. If tried and convicted of the charges, Hjort Frederiksen faces up to 12 years in prison.