The accused’s lawyer said that his client accepted the ruling but that the four-month prison sentence was “a bit harsher than I had feared.“ File
| Photo Credit: AFP

A Danish court on Wednesday handed a Polish man a four-month prison sentence and ordered him deported for punching the country’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen in June.

The 39-year-old, who Danish authorities have ruled cannot be named in the media, was immediately apprehended after the assault on June 7 in a Copenhagen square. “We have found you guilty of having punched the prime minister with a closed fist on the right shoulder,” Judge Jacob Scherfig told the man at the end of the trial Wednesday.

The man, who has lived in Denmark for five years, will be deported after serving his sentence. He was also banned from re-entering the Scandinavian country for six years.

During the two-day trial, he denied responsibility, saying he remembered coming face-to-face with the prime minister, whom he recognised, but not putting his hand on her. He said he believed the memory loss was the result of alcohol use, and the surprise of suddenly coming face-to-face with the prime minister.

Frederiksen, 46, underwent a medical examination after the incident and was diagnosed with a “contusion on her right shoulder and a minor whiplash injury”, her office said at the time. The man was convicted of violence against a public servant. He was also convicted of several counts of indecent exposure and fraud relating to other incidents.

Neither the prosecution nor the defence called Frederiksen as a witness during the trial, as the prosecution argued they could present a strong enough case without her testimony.

The accused’s lawyer Henrik Karl Nielsen said that his client accepted the ruling but that the four-month prison sentence was “a bit harsher than I had feared.“ He was calm, but he was, of course, disappointed that the length of the prison was four months,” Nielsen told AFP.

Nielsen added that it was not clear how much of the sentence was related to the assault on the prime minister and how much was due to the other charges.

– Safe streets –

Having already spent two months in pre-trial detention, the Polish man will serve another two months in a Danish prison before being deported. Frederiksen became Denmark’s youngest-ever head of government when she was elected in 2019, aged 41. She won re-election in 2022.

The attack was widely condemned by leading European politicians. EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen, who ca led it a “despicable act which goes against everything we believe and fight for in Europe”.

It followed a spate of assaults on European politicians from across the political spectrum ahead of the European Parliament elections in June. On May 15, Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico was shot four times at close range as he greeted supporters after a government meeting. Several politicians in Germany had been attacked at work or on the campaign trail.

“We want a society where everyone, including prime ministers, can walk down the street safely and calmly without being harassed by others,” special prosecutor Anders Larsson told AFP ahead of the verdict on Wednesday.