Ahmed Samsam was sentenced in 2018 to eight years in prison for having fought within the jihadist group Islamic State (IS). But he claims to have been employed in Syria as an indicator of Danish intelligence which he is pursuing in a trial which opened on Thursday in Copenhagen.
“My client, Ahmed Samsam, wants the court to recognize that he worked as an agent for the Danish intelligence services,” explained his lawyer, Erbil Kaya. “The question is whether the intelligence services should be forced to recognize this cooperation,” Kaya told the court at the start of the trial in an ultra-secure room in the Eastern Court of Appeal, where only 40 people can attend the hearing.
A “unique” trial
During stays in Syria in 2013 and 2014, Ahmed Samsam never joined ISIS but worked for the secret services (PET) then the Danish military intelligence (FE), which he informed about foreign jihadist fighters, assures his lawyer. Claims that he could not prove before the Spanish courts which condemned him almost six years ago.
“The trial is unique,” confirms Lasse Lund Madsen, professor of law at the University of Aarhus (west). Several Danish media counter-investigations, which journalists will testify to, corroborate the statements of this 34-year-old Dane with a well-documented criminal record. In 2012, the young man of Syrian origin actually left for Syria on his own to fight the regime of Bashar al-Assad.
A captivated public opinion
On his return, the Danish justice is interested in his stay but the case is closed. He claims that he was then sent several times to the war zone 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, avoids 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 case now believe that Samsam was sent to Syria with the agreement of the intelligence services”, notes Lasse Lund Madsen, who is following the case closely. “Personally, this has been confirmed to me by intelligence sources,” he said.
“He will be able to tell everything” in front of the court
For Ahmed 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.