Danish politician arrested for allegedly sharing jihadist killing video

The Copenhagen Police have arrested a total of three people who allegedly shared a killing video from Morocco, following the announcement that a general election will take place on June 5 in Denmark.

The mood in Denmark is currently decidedly anti-Islam. A major newspaper in Denmark, Ekstra Bladet, ran a straw poll to see who would win the upcoming election and Rasmus Paludan’s party polled at 24 percent, the highest score of any party in Denmark.

Paludan, a Danish lawyer and politician, is the leader of the political party Hard Line [Stram Kurs] which he founded in 2017. His party represent strong views on Islam and non-western immigration. Paludan is opposed to non-Western immigration and Islam’s presence in Denmark.

Blogger Snaphan, one of the arrested and a 67-year-old Danish citizen, was also taken away by six police officers in handcuffs for sharing the video of the Scandinavian girls who had been decapitated by Muslims in Morocco.

Juhl, who was also arrested for sharing the video, said he had never even seen it let alone shared it, and they had arrested him also in connection for his work with NewsPeek, at least two years ago. On 25 March 2017, Juhl received a  prize from the anti-immigrant association Dansk Kulturs for his informative work on 24NYT, but was fired from his job in April for “misleading” journalism.

He was charged by the Copenhagen Police for having shared killing video and arrested on Wednesday morning.

“I can confirm that this morning I was arrested at 7:15 am, brought to questioning at Station Bellahøj and charged,” Jeppe Juhl said.

Juhl stated that he was charged under the Criminal Code 264d, as being responsible for the site. The video he denied sharing, shows the beheading of a Danish and a Norwegian national in Morocco in December.

“I have not been responsible for Newspeek for two years. And I have never seen that video and would never ever dream of sharing it,” said Juhl.

He says that the four officers who arrested him searched his home and seized his computer, was “extremely friendly and professional,” but that “there must be a political motive behind it”.

“Apparently, Islam critics must be knocked down before the elections,” he said.

“I was charged with a charge of roughly the same thing that Jaleh Tavakoli [Iranian-Danish woman who lost custody of her foster children] is said to have done. I must have linked to something that linked further that linked to the mentioned beheading video from December.”

Juhl noted that Section 264 d of the Criminal Code was a perfectly reasonable paragraph, but this particular application of it “resembles an overkill and it signals panic among the debating classes”.

He was put in handcuffs and driven to the Bellahøj Police Station and locked in a cell of nine square meters, without belt or laces. “I had DNA, photo and fingerprints taken and was locked in again. Then I was questioned and signed the document. All the officers behaved properly and professionally, and I tried to do the same. There was nothing to say to them; it is higher up in the system where someone is not quite well-kept at the moment.”

Juhl had a scheduled appointment with Steve Bannon in Oslo this weekend. According to Lars Hedegaard, a Danish historian, journalist and founder of the International Free Press Society, the hunt for Islam critics is underway.

Steen Raaschou, who is the editor of the media site Snaphan, has also been charged on Wednesday for sharing the killing video in December.

“I published a screenshot of the beheading that was pretty blurry. You could see some blood. And then I linked to another online newspaper where there was a link to the video itself. I didn’t think about it at that time. My intention was not to offend anyone, on the other hand I thought there was nothing wrong with people seeing what had actually happened,” he commented.

The Copenhagen Police say that – in a “coordinated action with the Central and Western Zealand Police” – on Wednesday, three people arrested and the police “strongly urge not to share videos like this. It is a criminal offense and can have major consequences for victims and survivors”.

Member of the Danish Parliament for the Danish People’s Party, Marie Krarup, noted on Facebook that the charges “seem completely crazy”.

Krarup added: “Can it really be appropriate for the police to use resources in such a way? And how does one talk about Islamic ritual killings if we don’t know they are being committed.”