Three Iranians charged with spying for Saudi Arabia in Denmark
Danish authorities said at the time they believed the three were target of a planned attack
COPENHAGEN (AFP) - Denmark s intelligence service arrested and charged three members of an Iranian separatist group with spying on behalf of Saudi Arabia in Denmark, it said Monday.
The Danish Security and Intelligence Service (PET) said it arrested three leading members of the ASMLA, Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahwaz.
The three "have carried out espionage activities on behalf of a Saudi intelligence service from 2012 to 2018," Finn Borch Andersen, head of the intelligence agency, told a Copenhagen press conference.
PET said it launched an investigation into the trio, who live in Denmark, in November 2018 to determine whether they "had publicly condoned acts of terrorism or committed other criminal offences."
The members were arrested in 2018 and accused of praising the five commandos who attacked a military parade in the Iranian city of Ahvaz on September 22, spraying the crowd with gunfire and killing 24 people.
Danish authorities said at the time they believed the three were the target of a planned attack on Danish soil, orchestrated by the Iranian regime.
Tehran had formally denied the accusation.
During the investigation "it was uncovered that they have been involved in espionage activities in Denmark on behalf of Saudi Arabia," a PET statement said.
"Among other things, they have collected information about individuals in Denmark and abroad and passed on this information to a Saudi intelligence service," it added.
ASMLA is a separatist group that advocates an Arab state in a southwestern Iranian province. Tehran calls it a terrorist organisation.
