A former Danish defense minister faces accusation for leaking state secrets, the Justice Ministry said on Thursday, in a case related to Danish cooperation in the U.S. intelligence scandal.
In a press release, the Ministry of Justice indicated that it has received a recommendation from the Public Prosecutor’s Office to prosecute MP Claus Hjort Frederiksen for […] unauthorized disclosure of highly confidential information.
The ministry seeks to waive its parliamentary immunity, as required by the Danish procedure outside of flagrante delicto.
The confidentiality of the details of the investigation, which has already landed the former head of Danish military intelligence more than two months in pre-trial detention, is obscure in the file.
Danish parliamentarians were seeking access to the file to decide on the waiver of the immunity of their colleague, Minister of Defense between 2016 and 2019, but they were denied by the Minister of Justice.
This is highly confidential information, so it is not possible for the entire Folketing (the Danish Parliament, editor’s note) to see itsaid Mattias Tesfaye on public television DR.
In May 2021, an investigation conducted by some media revealed that the American NSA used – at least in 2014 – the Danish submarine cable network to listen to personalities from four countries (Germany, Sweden, Norway, France) , including Angela Merkel.
In an interview on the TV2 television channel in mid-December, Claus Hjort Frederiksen notably confirmed that the agreement on the use of submarine cables was signed in the late 1990s by American President Bill Clinton and the first Danish Minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen.
That’s what I understood. Like that. As far as I knowhas fired the former Minister of Defense.
Legal proceedings were launched against him in January.
Source: Radio-Canada