Denmark: Claus Hjort Frederiksen, a former defence minister of Denmark, was accused of disclosing state secrets after he claimed that military intelligence collaborated with the US National Security Agency (NSA) to spy on a number of foreign leaders, including former German chancellor Angela Merkel.
In a Facebook post on Tuesday, Frederiksen acknowledged the accusations, stating that he had been charged with "disclosure or passing on of state secrets." But he insisted on being innocent, saying the accusations were politically motivated.
"I deny going beyond the scope of my expansive freedom of speech as a politician, and I haven't spilled any alleged state secrets, either. And since this is a political case, I will demand a jury trial, he continued.
The charges against Frederiksen were not specifically mentioned by Danish officials, who cited prosecutor Jakob Berger Nielsen's statement that the case "involves highly classified information that cannot be presented in an open forum."
While the specifics of the state secrets indictment are still unknown, Frederiksen suggested the case was related to public remarks he made regarding joint surveillance missions involving Denmark's Defense Intelligence Service and the NSA after being charged with preliminary offences last year.
In numerous interviews with the media in 2020 and 2021, Frederiksen claimed that the Danish agency had assisted the NSA in surveilling high-ranking officials in France, Germany, Norway, and Sweden, including Merkel and a number of her political adversaries.
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Although whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed the NSA's involvement in the spying while working as a private contractor in 2013, Denmark's involvement was only revealed in subsequent media reports, which cited a private Danish intelligence review conducted after the Snowden revelations.
Between 2016 and 2019, Frederiksen was the defence minister of Denmark. He later joined the Liberal Party of Denmark. However, because he left public life last year, his parliamentary immunity has expired, and he is now subject to prosecution.
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The former official, who could spend up to 12 years in prison if found guilty, has not yet had a trial date set.
