DAESH ‘terrorist’ jailed for 8 years on Spain’s Costa del Sol was working for Danish intelligence

A DANISH man who joined DAESH in Syria and was jailed for eight years after being described as “Spain’s most dangerous terrorist” was allegedly working for Danish intelligence services. 

Ahmed Samsam, aged 30, who made several trips to Syria to join the terror organisation, did so with the approval and under the direction of Denmark’s Police Intelligence Service and Defence Intelligence Service, according to Danish newspaper Berlingske. 

The paper says several inside sources have confirmed that Samsam was recruited by intelligence in December 2012 and was then sent to Syria in February 2013. 

He remained in the “employ” of Danish intelligence, receiving military training, until late 2015, receiving up to 20,000 Kroner (€2,675) a month. 

He was arrested by Spanish police on the Costa del Sol in 2017. 

Speaking to Berlingske he said: “I wanted to help prevent a terrorist attack in Denmark. I have a family that uses public transport, which is at high risk of being hit by terror.” 

He added that the Danish authorities knew about his trips to Syria and had guaranteed he would not be punished on his return. 

Now some people in Denmark say the country should have informed Spain of his position at the time of his arrest and are calling for his return. 

Spain’s Guardia Civil laid their hands on Samsam in Malaga in June 2017, on his return from long stays in Syria. Police had decided they had caught a “big fish”. “He is a very dangerous person who is clearly integrated into the Islamic State (Daesh),” one of them declared during the trial at the National Court in June 2018. 

The Spanish press elaborated on this thesis by describing him as a “heavyweight” of Islamic terrorism, who, they claimed, was implicated in the beheading of 87 Syrian military personnel at Base 17, and the Danish media did not beat about the bush when reporting on his dangerousness either. 

Surprisingly at the time, the Danish judiciary did not request his extradition. Although he had not committed any crime on Spanish territory, Samsam was finally sentenced in 2018 to eight years in prison by the Audiencia Nacional for belonging to DAESH, something he denied during the trial. He is serving his sentence in the prison of Villahierro (León).