Overview

• Denmark’s PET and FE said they recognize that Ahmed Samsam cooperated with them on trips to Syria in 2013 and 2014 and received fees and other benefits, citing the Supreme Court’s decision.
• The Danish Supreme Court found Samsam acted as an informant for national intelligence services and established that he was paid for providing information on Danish foreign fighters.
• The court called the matter exceptional and ordered the services to formally acknowledge the collaboration and cover legal costs, creating an explicit carve-out from usual secrecy rules.
• The ruling conflicts with Spanish judgments that relied on Guardia Civil phone data and bank transfers, which the Danish court now characterizes as informant payments rather than terrorist financing.
• Samsam was arrested in Spain in 2017, convicted in 2018 and later transferred to Denmark before his 2023 release, and his lawyer says the new ruling enables a bid to reopen the Spanish case.