Advertisement

No further fine for Danish police in Tibet flag case

The Local Denmark
The Local Denmark - [email protected]
No further fine for Danish police in Tibet flag case
Photo: Michael Lieu/Flickr

Copenhagen City Court has dismissed a case against police for infringing the human rights of a protester who was told not to wave a Tibetan flag, reports Jyllands-Posten via news agency Ritzau.

Advertisement

The court ruled on Thursday that no further compensation was due to a Tibet activist arrested by police during an official Chinese state visit to Copenhagen in June 2012.
 
When Thomas Goetz waved the Tibetan flag, police surrounded him and demanded he place the flag on the ground. 
 
The High Court (Østre Landsret) previously ruled that Goetz was illegally detained for an hour and twenty minutes.
 
The activist was given compensation to the tune of 2,400 kroner ($358) in accordance with normal rates set by the Public Prosecutor (Rigsadvokaten).
 
But in a new lawsuit, the activist demanded an increased 12,100 kroner ($1,800), citing infringements of his human rights and right to take part in public gatherings.
 
The new claim was rejected by Copenhagen City Court on Thursday on technical grounds: The scope of the case has already been set by the High Court and can therefore only relate to Goetz's detainment, according Ritzau's report as published by Jyllands-Posten.
 
The Danish police has on more than one occasion been accused of ordering officers to prevent Chinese officials from seeing the Tibetan flag on visits to Denmark.
 
Last year, the High Court ruled that this was was the case, when it emerged that an internal order to this end had been given, despite police officials denying so in response to questions from parliament.
 
As such, the Independent Police Complaints Authority (Den Uafhængige Politklagemyndighed) is now investigating whether a number of senior police officers broke the law by misleading the Ministry of Justice and thereby parliament as well as Copenhagen City Court, writes Jyllands-Posten via Ritzau.
 
Additionally, Justice Minister Søren Pind has authorised a commission to investigate how the order to keep Tibetan flags from view came into being. The commission is set to hear the testimonies of three separate former foreign ministers and three justice ministers.

More

Join the conversation in our comments section below. Share your own views and experience and if you have a question or suggestion for our journalists then email us at [email protected].
Please keep comments civil, constructive and on topic – and make sure to read our terms of use before getting involved.

Please log in to leave a comment.

See Also