Danish man faces preliminary terror charges over blaze at Jewish woman’s home
Suspect, 21, could face life sentence — usually 16 years in prison — for allegedly sparking fire on balcony at victim’s Copenhagen home in May
A 21-year-old man in Denmark was arrested on Tuesday for arson after allegedly setting a fire at a Jewish woman’s home in Copenhagen and faced preliminary court charges under the country’s terrorism laws that can lead to a life sentence.
Preliminary charges are one step short of formal charges and allow authorities to detain suspects during an investigation. A life sentence in Denmark usually means 16 years in prison.
The man and several other suspects who were not identified allegedly set fire to balcony furniture at the woman’s house on May 29. The blaze spread but was put out by firefighters, Danish media said, and no one was injured.
Under a court order, neither the suspect nor the victim can be named.
The incident came amid a significant uptick in antisemitic incidents in Denmark since October 7, when Hamas-led terrorists rampaged southern Israel, killing 1,200 and taking 251 hostages, mostly civilians, sparking the ongoing war in Gaza
Danish media at the court hearing said the man pleaded not guilty through his defense attorney. No further details were available because the rest of the hearing was held behind closed doors.
The Danish Security and Intelligence Service said in a statement that the suspect was related to Loyal to Familia, a predominantly immigrant gang in Denmark that was banned in 2021.
“It is serious if a person in Denmark becomes a target of terror because of the person’s Jewish background. It is also worrying that we again see links to LTF in terrorist cases,” said Finn Borch Andersen, the head of the security agency.
“It is too early to assess whether it is an isolated case or a broader development in the terrorist threat,” he added.
The Jewish Community in Denmark, in a separate statement, described the attack as “terrifying … even if no one was injured.”
The security agency has warned of an “intensified terrorist threat against Jewish and Israeli targets in Denmark, especially in light of the conflict in Israel and Gaza,” Borch Andersen said.
The number of antisemitic incidents registered in Denmark since October 7 has reached levels not seen since 1943, Henri Goldstein, head of the Danish Jewish community, told The Associated Press in February.
“We have seen a violent escalation, not least fueled by the uncontrolled spread of hatred on social media,” Goldstein said, adding that in 2023, “all 121 incidents were Jew-hatred – and not ‘just criticism of Israel.’”
Of the 121 incidents, 20 were death threats, “which we have not seen since the 1980s,” Goldstein said, referring to threats made then against two leading figures in the Jewish community – an editor-in-chief and the chief rabbi. In lieu of the rising antisemitism, Jews in Denmark were advised not to wear Jewish symbols openly, Goldstein said.
The figures, compiled by the community’s security organization, were on par with recent reports in other European countries. Many European countries have registered a rise in reported antisemitic acts.
Top European and US envoys warned last week that fear is spreading through Jewish communities worldwide due to surging antisemitism.
“We have seen a tsunami of antisemitism really rolling across Europe and the globe,” said Katharina von Schnurbein, the European Commission’s coordinator on combating antisemitism and fostering Jewish life.
“We are seeing a situation that we had hoped we would never see again,” she told AFP in Geneva after a closed-door workshop at the United Nations last week on how to address the threat.
She pointed to the firebombing of synagogues, Stars of David spray-painted onto houses where Jews live and Jewish students attacked on university campuses.
“I think we are now in a situation that really reminds us of the darkest days of Europe.”
The European Union’s Fundamental Rights Agency said in July that according to a poll, which surveyed nearly 8,000 self-identified Jews from 13 European countries — including Denmark — 96 percent of respondents said they had encountered antisemitism in their daily lives even before the ongoing war in Gaza.
Europe’s Jewish community is facing a “rising tide of antisemitism,” with the conflict in the Middle East “eroding” progress made in the fight against it, said agency director Sirpa Rautio. She added that the surge in antisemitism was jeopardizing the success of the EU’s first-ever strategy for combating the problem, adopted in 2021.
Some 37 percent of respondents said they were harassed over the past year. A total of 4% of respondents said they had experienced antisemitic physical attacks in the 12 months before the survey — double the number recorded in 2018, the last time the survey was taken.
