Denmark expands investigation after arrest of alleged Hamas members in Germany

Denmark has detained six suspected members of a terrorist group, a member of the Danish Attorney General’s Office said this Friday. The case coincides with similar arrests carried out in the Netherlands and Germany of alleged Hamas members.

While Denmark has not declared any links to Hamas, German authorities have said three people detained in the country are suspected of plotting attacks on Jewish institutions in Europe.

Danish authorities say the man was detained in the Netherlands, but it remains unclear whether there was any connection to an investigation into alleged Hamas activities in Germany.

Two of the six suspects detained in Denmark are currently in custody until January 9, said judicial sources, who did not provide further information about the other four.

On Thursday, the Danish secret service PET announced the arrest of three people on suspicion of conspiracy to commit a “terrorist act.”

One of them was released, prosecutor Anders Larsson said this Friday after an overnight detention hearing at a Copenhagen court. However, it is unclear whether surveillance of the released suspect will continue.

Larsson also said that four other people had been detained in absentia, but did not say whether authorities knew their whereabouts or whether a “manhunt” was underway.

However, he said, without going into detail, that “there is still someone at large.”

None of the suspects could be identified due to a court order, and the custody hearing was held behind closed doors, meaning no details of the case were revealed, shrouded in secrecy.

German prosecutors say the three men arrested Thursday in Germany were tasked with finding an underground Hamas weapons cache in Europe, and argue that the weapons should be taken to Berlin and kept ready for possible terrorist attacks on Jewish institutions in Europe.

Two men were detained in Berlin and a third suspect was also temporarily detained in the German capital, Germany’s federal prosecutor said, adding that one of them was also detained in the Dutch port city of Rotterdam.

Authorities identified the men only by their first name and the first letter of their last name, in line with German privacy rules.

These four are Ibrahim El-R. and Abdelhamid Al A., both born in Lebanon, Mohamed B., an Egyptian citizen, and Nazih R., a Dutch citizen.

Authorities said the three men in Germany “are long-time members” of the Palestinian Islamist movement and that they “were involved in Hamas operations abroad.”

The suspects are “closely linked to the leadership of the military branch” of Hamas, which the United States and the European Union consider a terrorist organization.

It remains to be seen whether and how the Danish and German arrests are linked.

Earlier this month, European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson warned that Europe faces a “huge risk of terrorist attacks” during the Christmas holidays in the context of the war between Israel and Hamas.