• Home /
• Statewatch Database /
• Denmark: bugging case surfaces

Denmark: bugging case surfaces

01 January 1994

The "bugging" (telephone and room conversations) of a professor at Copenhagen University was dramatically revealed after seven years last December. The "bugging" was disclosed by Mr Lars Erik Allin, now "legal consultant" to the University rector and responsible for security matters. Back in 1986 Mr Allin, an administrator at the University and a member of a rifle club,
heard during target practice that Professor Gammeltoft-Hansen was being bugged. Some months later Mr Allin, helped by an unidentified communications technician, broke into the professor's office and removed the bug. The two men then went for a drink and put the bug in a plain brown envelope with a note saying "Thank you" and sent it to the Danish internal security police (PET). Mr Allin did not inform the college authorities or the professor.

At the time of the bugging Professor Gammeltoft-Hansen was head of the Danish Refugee-Help and well known for his progressive views. He was outspoken in criticising police measures against squatters, and was later appointed the national Ombudsman.

If the bug was placed by the internal security police it raises questions not just about their role but that of the former Minister of Justice, Erik Ninn-Hansen, a known opponent of Professor Gammeltoft-Hansen (Erik Ninn-Hansen was responsible for the illegal attempt to exclude Tamil refugees and the subsequent cover-up which led to the fall of the Conservative government in January 1993).

Meanwhile Mr Allin has been severely reprimanded by the University for his "unorthodox behaviour" and "poor judgement", and has been removed from all "security matters".

Times Higher Educational Supplement, 10.12.93; Statewatch contributor (Copenhagen).