Denmark has arrested six alleged members of a terrorist group, a member of the Danish Public Prosecution Service said on Friday, in a case that coincides with identical arrests of alleged Hamas members in the Netherlands and Germany.
While Denmark has claimed no link to Hamas, German authorities have said three people detained in the country are suspected of planning attacks on Jewish institutions in Europe.
Danish authorities say a person has been arrested in the Netherlands, but it remains unclear whether there was any connection with the investigation into alleged Hamas activities in Germany.
Two of the six suspects detained in Denmark are currently in pre-trial detention until January 9, judicial sources said, who gave no further details about the remaining four.
On Thursday, the Danish secret service PET announced the arrest of three people on suspicion of conspiracy to commit “an act of terror”.
One of them was released, prosecutor Anders Larsson said today, after an overnight detention hearing in a Copenhagen court. However, it was not clear whether the released suspect would be further monitored.
Larsson also said four other people had been remanded in absentia, but did not say whether authorities knew where they were or if a “manhunt” was underway.
However, without elaborating, he said that “there is still someone at large.”
None of the suspects can be identified thanks to a court order and the custody hearing took place behind closed doors, meaning no details about the case were made public, shrouded in secrecy.
German prosecutors allege that the three men arrested in Germany on Thursday were tasked with finding an underground Hamas weapons cache in Europe and argue that the weapons should be brought to Berlin and kept on standby for possible terrorist attacks on Jewish institutions in Europe.
Two men were arrested in Berlin, while a third suspect was also temporarily held in the German capital, a German federal prosecutor said, adding that one of them was also being held in the Dutch port city of Rotterdam.
Authorities identified the men only by their first name and the first letter of their surname, in accordance with German rules on the protection of private life.
The four are Ibrahim El-R. and Abdelhamid Al A., both born in Lebanon, Mohamed B., of Egyptian nationality, and Nazih R., of Dutch nationality.
Authorities claimed that three of the men in Germany are “old members” of the Palestinian Islamic movement and that they “participated in Hamas operations abroad.”
The suspects are “closely linked to the leadership of the military branch” of Hamas, which is considered a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union.
Whether and how the Danish and German arrests are related remains to be clarified.
Earlier this month, European Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson warned that Europe faces a “high risk of terrorist attacks” during the Christmas holidays, in the context of the war between Israel and Hamas.
Source: DN
