Danish Prime minister’s attacker gets jail term, to be deported

A Danish court on Wednesday (7 August) handed a Polish man a four-month prison sentence and ordered him deported for punching the country's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen in June.

The 39-year-old, who Danish authorities have ruled cannot be named in the media, was immediately apprehended after the assault on 7 June in a Copenhagen square.

"We have found you guilty of having punched the prime minister with a closed fist on the right shoulder," judge Jacob Scherfig told the man at the end of the trial.

The man, who lived in Denmark for five years, will be deported after serving his sentence. He was also banned from re-entering the Scandinavian country for six years.

During the two-day trial, he denied responsibility, saying he remembered coming face-to-face with the prime minister, whom he recognised, but not putting his hand on her.

He said he believed the memory loss was the result of alcohol use, and the surprise of suddenly coming face-to-face with the prime minister.

Frederiksen underwent a medical examination after the incident and was diagnosed with a "contusion on her right shoulder and a minor whiplash injury", her office said at the time.

The man was convicted of violence against a public servant.

He was also convicted of several counts of indecent exposure and fraud relating to other incidents.

Neither the prosecution nor defence called Frederiksen as a witness during the trial, as the prosecution argued they could present a strong enough case without her testimony.

The accused's lawyer Henrik Karl Nielsen said that his client accepted the ruling but that the four-month prison sentence was "a bit harsher than I had feared.

"He was calm, but he was, of course, disappointed that the length of the prison term was four months," Nielsen told AFP.

Safe streets 

As he already spent two months in pre-trial detention, the Polish man will serve another two months in a Danish prison before being deported.

The attack was widely condemned by leading European politicians. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who called it a "despicable act which goes against everything we believe and fight for in Europe".

Frederiksen's attack followed a spate of assaults on European politicians from across the political spectrum ahead of the European Parliament elections in June.

On May 15, Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico was shot four times at close range while greeting supporters after a government meeting.

Several politicians in Germany were attacked at work and on the campaign trail.

"We want a society where everyone, including prime ministers, can walk down the street safely and calmly without being harassed by others," special prosecutor Anders Larsson told AFP ahead of the verdict on Wednesday.