Sentenced in 2018 to eight years in prison for having joined the jihadist group Islamic State (IS), Ahmed Samsam claims to have been employed in Syria as an indicator of Danish intelligence which he is pursuing in a trial which opened Thursday in Copenhagen.
“The question is whether the intelligence services should be forced to recognize this cooperation,” said Me Erbil Kaya, Mr. Samsam’s lawyer, at the opening of the trial in an ultra-secure room at the Court of Eastern Call, where only 40 people can attend.
Intelligence stressed that they could neither confirm nor deny the identity of their informants.
“This harms (their) ability to use sources, protect them and prevent terrorism,” insisted their counsel, Peter Biering. “It’s a matter of national security.”
The 34-year-old plaintiff, wearing a black hoodie with a red stripe and sweatpants, appeared focused during the hearing.
Relaxed, he did not hesitate to comb his hair during an intervention by one of the three judges.
During a break, the young man spoke with his mother and sister, present at the hearing.
Samsam is formal. During stays in Syria in 2013 and 2014, he never joined ISIS but worked for the secret services (PET) and then the Danish military intelligence (FE), which he informed about foreign jihadist fighters.
Claims that he could not prove before the Spanish courts which condemned him almost six years ago.
Several Danish media counter-investigations, which journalists will be called upon to testify, corroborate the statements of the Dane of Syrian origin, with a well-documented criminal record.
In 2012, the young man actually left on his own initiative for Syria, to fight the regime of Bashar al-Assad.
On his return, the Danish justice is interested in his stay but the case is closed.
Samsam claims to have been sent to the war zone on several occasions with money and equipment provided by PET and then FE, information relayed by the DR and Berlingske media, which is based on anonymous testimonies and proof of bank transfers.
Ahmed Samsam managed to captivate public opinion.
The political class, embarrassed, avoided the subject, but a preliminary commission of inquiry to shed light on the affair was launched in February.
“In Denmark, most of those who followed the affair now believe that Samsam was sent to Syria with the agreement of the intelligence services”, notes Lasse Lund Madsen, professor of law at the University of Aarhus (west ).
“Personally, this has been confirmed to me by intelligence sources,” he said.
For Mr. Samsam’s lawyer, this judicial soap opera which has lasted for more than seven years is far from having delivered all its truth.
“My client was limited in what he could say but now, in court, he will be able to tell everything,” he says.
In 2017, threatened by criminals in Copenhagen in a case of settling scores independent of his trips to Syria, Samsam left to go green in Spain.
There, he was arrested by the Spanish police who were surprised to find photos of him with the IS flag on Facebook.
Ahmed Samsam was sentenced the following year to eight years in prison for belonging to the Islamic State organization. His appeals to the Danish authorities, during the Spanish legal proceedings, were ignored.
Since 2020, he has been serving his sentence, reduced to six years, in Denmark. He must be released within “two, three months” according to his lawyer.
The “position” of the intelligence services, “is that there was no miscarriage of justice. He was rightly condemned”, insists their lawyer, Peter Biering.
“The (Spanish) Supreme Court (..) explicitly stated that even if he had indeed worked for the Danish intelligence services in 2013 or 2014, it had enough elements, enough evidence without taking into account what point, to condemn him”, he develops.
For the defender of Mr. Samsam, the recognition of a role of indicator must make it possible to open the revision of the lawsuit in Spain.
The trial is due to end on September 8.
08/24/2023 14:55:31 – Copenhagen (AFP) – © 2023 AFP