• Denmark’s former intelligence chief Lars Findsen charged with leaking sensitive information.
• Prosecutors claim he “disclosed state secrets or other particularly confidential information” to six people, including two journalists.
• The charges are the result of a “long and extensive investigation” by Danish police and the Police Intelligence Service.

Denmark’s former intelligence chief has been charged formally with leaking sensitive information.

Prosecutors claim Lars Findsen “disclosed state secrets or other particularly confidential information” to six people, including two journalists.

The leaked material is said to have come from Findsen’s time as director of the Danish Defence Intelligence Service, which he took over in 2015.

He was suspended in August 2020 and detained in December last year in connection with the alleged leaks before being remanded in custody in January.

“It is, of course, serious when secrets or other confidential information, which is essential for the intelligence services’ work to protect Denmark’s security, is passed on to outsiders,” said Prosecutor Jakob Berger Nielsen in a statement on Friday.

“It can damage the relationship with the intelligence services’ business partners and it can make it more difficult to carry out their work if their working methods are revealed – just as the trust that intelligence services can care about sensitive information is weakened.”

The charges are the result of a “long and extensive investigation” by Danish police and the Police Intelligence Service, which Findsen previously led from 2002 to 2007.

The charges’ specifics are unknown because the case was conducted behind closed doors, which means it is shrouded in secrecy.

Findsen has previously claimed innocence, calling the situation “complete insanity.”

“I want the charges brought forward, and I plead not guilty,” he told reporters at a January hearing in Copenhagen.

If Findsen is found guilty, prosecutors intend to request a prison sentence of at least four years. A date for the trial, which will most likely be closed to the public, has yet to be set.

In between working for the Police Intelligence Service and the Danish Defence Intelligence Service, Findsen was appointed head of department at Denmark’s Ministry of Defence.

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