Danish former intel chief reported to police in book spat

Denmark's intelligence service today asked police to investigate its former head for allegedly breaching his confidentiality agreement in a book about his time at the agency.

"It is the Danish Security and Intelligence Service's (PET) assessment that the book, which is partly based on interviews with the former head of PET, Jakob Scharf, contains information... Covered by his confidentiality agreement," the agency said in a statement.

Scharf, who headed PET between 2007 and 2013, denies violating his confidentiality agreement, insisting he did not reveal anything that was not already public knowledge.

PET said it believed the publisher of daily Politiken may also have broken the law when it published the book, called "Seven Years for PET -- Jakob Scharf's Time", in its entirety on Sunday.
 

The move came after PET obtained a provisional injunction early Saturday against the book's publication from the City Court of Copenhagen, amid fears it could contain secrets, prompting accusations of censorship.

The book's publisher, its author, a Danish radio station that discussed its contents, and bookstores that sold it could also all have breached the country's penal code, PET said.

The agency planned to file a separate complaint over Politiken's decision to violate the injunction, the intelligence service added.

PET asked the court to lift the injunction today since it was "no longer practically possible to maintain."

Violating the Danish penal code's paragraph 152, on public officials unlawfully passing confidential information, typically carries a fine or up to six months in prison but can in some cases be punished with up to two years in jail.

While Politiken noted that the book included comments on the US and Pakistani intelligence services, Flemming Splidsboel Hansen of the Danish Institute for International Studies told the paper that it was "doubtful" that they would affect Danish cooperation with those agencies.

Denmark prides itself on championing freedom of expression and according to the annual rankings of Reporters Without Borders was placed fourth for freedom of the press this year.