Threatened to kill the prime minister – goes unpunished
Shocked passers-by could see a doll hanging from a lamppost in Copenhagen in January 2021. The doll represents Prime Minister Mette Fredriksen and was set on fire. The message on a poster attached to the doll said the following: “Our joint efforts are absolutely crucial, we must and must fight the virus. We need community spirit, she must and must be euthanized.” All three men who were charged in the case have now been acquitted of threats to kill.
In a lamppost on Julius Thomsens Plads on Frederiksberg in Copenhagen, on Saturday evening 23 January last year, a doll with a rope around its neck dangled.
The doll represents Mette Frederiksen and is equipped with a sign with the text:
“Our joint efforts are absolutely crucial, we must and must control the virus. We need community spirit, she must and must be killed’.
![](https://www.rights.no/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/mette.f.dukke_.png)
Screenshot from video at Extrabladet
It was a demonstration organized by Men in Black, and around 19:30 the doll was set on fire.
The case was reported to the police as death threats against Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen (S), and now a magistrate at the Court in Frederiksberg has put a final end to the one and a half year old case.
The case has ended with three men aged 32, 33 and 36 respectively being acquitted of threats to kill.
An ambiguous threat
It must be clarified that the decision is solely about the indictment for threats to kill and not about the lighting of the doll itself. The case will probably end with fines.
As it appears from the judgment transcript, writes The short newspaperit was necessary to make an assessment of the circumstances for a state: «… whether the speech was a punishable threat or one protected by freedom of speech, legal statements made as part of the then public debate about the corona restrictions and their necessity.»
The court assessed as a starting point that the threat was ambiguous, as it was made during a demonstration.
For the same reason, the court had to make an overall assessment of both Danish case law and the practice of the European Court of Human Rights, and therefore concluded on that basis that the three defendants should be acquitted.
In connection with acquitting the three men for having made death threats against Mette Frederiksen, that the court, however, needed to capture that death threats against the statesman were therefore not a green light.
It is thus stated in the judgment transcript that:
“The court found reason to state that it was not a consequence of the court’s concrete assessment that under other circumstances, including at the current time, it would necessarily be legal to say ‘She must and shall be killed’ about Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen. «
One of the three defendants’ defenders, lawyer Ulrik Sjølin, stated in May last year that he could not get the name of the whistleblower in the case and in that connection raised suspicions that the political press had been used because it was about the prime minister.
When the three acquitted men were arrested, the case must have caused a great stir, as they were initially charged under Section 113 of the Criminal Code, which deals with coup d’état, and which can lead to 16 years in prison.
– The Prime Minister’s office was involved
The case started at the Court in Frederiksberg on Tuesday 6 September. At the time, Ekstra Bladet thought it could reveal that reports had been sent via the State Department to the Department of Justice, which then reported the case to the Copenhagen Police, having also involved PET.
Thus Ekstra Bladet wrote on 5 September at
“However, Ekstra Bladet can now reveal that the case apparently took off in the Prime Minister’s office on the evening in question, and within a few minutes the case moved from the Prime Minister’s office to the Ministry of Justice and on to PET and the Copenhagen Police, who ordered several police departments to investigate the doll incident.”
When Ekstra Bladet presented his timeline for defender Ulrik Sjølin, he was ready to go:
“Time clear that we as defenders kept in the dark about the line has become before the client’s arrest. It is difficult to think of a good reason why it is like this without thinking of countries with which we do not normally compare ourselves.»
Defense attorney Jonas Christoffersen told Ekstra Bladet at the time that the defense attorneys had a suspicion.
– If Ekstra Bladet’s information is correct, it confirms my and our suspicions that the case was started from above, but we have not managed to get the police to confirm or investigate, says Jonas Christoffersen, who continued:
“My client is arrested at three in the morning, and we still do not know what led to the arrest – that is, what happened during the five hours from 10 p.m. It is highly objectionable.”
Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has so far consistently refused to comment on the case.
— I will not go into the specific case, as Mette Frederiksen briefly answered questions in May last year about whether she wanted to report the case.