The story starts in 2012. Ahmed Samsam is part of a criminal gang. He has several convictions on him. For violence, threats, possession of weapons, drug use and possession and violations of the Road Traffic Act. VOLLMOSE: The Drabant town of Vollmose outside Odense is known for youth crime and violence. Several blocks have been demolished now, in an attempt to slow down segregation (the people on the bidet have no connection to the Ahmed Samsam case). Photo: Ernst van Norde / NTB He is currently 22 years old. Born in Denmark in 1989 to Syrian parents who fled Hafez al-Assad’s regime. They live in Vollmose, a drab town outside Odense which is well known in Denmark for being a vulnerable area with outsiders, an active environment of violence, segregation and drug dealing. It is this environment that he wants out of, Samsam tells news’s Danish sister channel DR when their Middle East correspondent meets him in Syria that same year. – I didn’t care anymore. I have had a criminal career for eight to nine years, he says in the interview with DR. He speaks quite openly that he participated in the civil war in Syria on the side of the rebels. He was in the country for two to three months and was associated with a local militia, “Kata’ib al-Iman”, or “Faith Brigade”, which operated near the family’s hometown of Hama. PREDECESSOR: Ahmed Samsam’s family fled Hafez al-Assad’s (pictured) regime in Syria in the mid-80s and settled in Denmark. Photo: SANA / AFP Claims he was recruited as a spy After returning from Syria in 2012, things start to happen. And this is where much of the heart of the battle lies. According to Samsam, he was then contacted by agents from PET. Samsam claims that he was recruited as an agent for PET. This is information DR writes that they have had confirmed. Samsam is said to have taken some time to think about it, but decided that he would take the assignment, because he believed it could help prevent terrorist attacks in Denmark. He was to gather as much information as he could about Danes who traveled to Syria to join IS. INTERVIEW: DR’s correspondent in the Middle East, Puk Damsgård interviews Ahmed Samsam in Syria in 2012 Photo: DR After the first trip, he is paid 20,000 Danish kroner. Samsam has documentation of this. The transfer is signed by a “Jesper Madsen”. Who this person is, or whether it is a fake name, is not known. But a valid Danish passport number has been added to the transfer as well. This document was later presented to the court in Spain, but was given little value in the trial. Put Samsam on the “terrorist list” Samsam is said to have later been transferred to the Defense Intelligence Service (FE) and has them as a client. He makes a total of three further trips to Syria, but when FE, according to Samsam, asks him to go down and join IS, he believes it is too risky and refuses to travel. Throughout this period, PET writes several times in its threat assessments that returned Syrian fighters pose the greatest danger to Danish security. That is precisely why PET puts him on a list as a “potential terrorist”. He is thus flagged as a possible security threat in the European police system SIS (Schengen Information System), writes the newspaper Berlingske. They were the first to write about Samsam’s alleged mission as an agent for the intelligence service. The information that he was on the list has also been confirmed by Spanish police. According to DR’s information, he is put on the list by PET employees who are unaware of the agreement he allegedly has with the intelligence service. Went on holiday before serving prison time Because after refusing to carry out several missions for FE, Samsam does not travel on more trips to Syria. Instead, he returns to his old criminal milieu. While waiting to serve a sentence in 2017, he decides to visit his bridge in Spain. Again, the reason is that he wants to get away from the criminal environment. What Samsam doesn’t know is that the Spanish police follow almost every step he takes on Spanish soil. According to a documentary series on DR, “Agent Samsam”, the police think the brothers and their friends are behaving suspiciously. They change hotels several times, show an interest in weapons and smoke weed. Ahmed Samsam is also on the list of potential terrorists in the Schengen area. After a week, they are arrested. ISLAMIC STATE: An IS fighter holds the flag used by the terrorist organization. It was these Danish calculations according to Ahmed Samsam that he wanted to join. He said no, but was nevertheless sentenced in Spain for terrorist involvement. Photo: Reuters On Samsam’s phone, they find, among other things, pictures of him carrying a weapon. There are pictures with the IS flag in the background and propaganda videos from the Islamic State. When Samsam says that he has been an agent for Danish intelligence services, Spanish police investigate this. But according to DR’s information, neither PET nor FE answers in the affirmative as to whether he is. The trial in Spain ends with Samsam being sentenced to eight years in prison for participation in the terrorist organization IS in 2018. In 2020, he will be transferred to a Danish prison, and the sentence will be reduced to six years. Samsam will therefore be a free man in a few months. Nevertheless, he fights fiercely to be cleansed. IN COURT: Among other things, Samsam was not given a Danish interpreter during the trial, but had to speak English. Danish PET and FE would not confirm that he had done assignments for them. Photo: AFP NOK 10,000 – from whom? One of his strongest testimonies is the story of his return to Denmark in December 2020. He says that he was met by employees of the Defense Intelligence Service at the airport in Copenhagen. He believes at this point that he will soon be a free man. But it takes time. In September of the following year, he is visited by two people in Enner Mark Prison near Horsens. Documents from the Norwegian Correctional Service relating to the visit confirm Samsam’s information. He receives NOK 10,000 in cash – in blue 500 krone notes. According to several sources, these people are from the Defense Intelligence Service, writes DR. Harsh judgment in Spain In the ongoing trial, the state’s lawyer, representing PET and FE, has submitted a number of documents from the Spanish judgment. Video clips dealing with the Islamic State and conversation logs on social media are shown here. Here, Samsam has talked to unknown people and the topic has often been IS. It is also pointed out that Samsam had a YouTube channel where, according to the judgment in Spain, he shared violent material. Naturally, the court in Spain did not rule on whether this could have been methods of obtaining information from other Danes in Syria on the the time. And there the matter stands now. Samsam has no documentation that unequivocally proves that he actually worked for PET and FE. And the Danish security and intelligence authorities are silent. They have not wanted to comment on the case, nor Ahmed Samsam’s statements. And they haven’t had to testify either. The Danish Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Defense respond in the same way. On Friday 8 September, the civil trial will end in Østre Landsræt in Copenhagen. A ruling is expected shortly afterwards.
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Terrorist convict Ahmed Samsam claims he worked for the Danish authorities – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
