Lars Findsen, Director General of The Danish Security Intelligence Service, states the following:

”Last night, at 0200 hours, the Danish Security Intelligence Service arrested a number of individuals residing in the Odense area in a case related to terrorism. 9 persons have been arrested, and later today (5 September) some of these will be presented before the court where the prosecutor will request that they be taken into custody. The arrests were effected on the basis of surveillance carried out for a considerable period of the individuals concerned.

The arrests were planned and carried out without any incidents. Since the arrests, the intelligence service has been in contact with a number of key persons in Muslim circles in order to inform them of the current situation.

The decision to effect the above arrests was taken following the uncovering, as a consequence of the surveillance carried out by the intelligence service, of certain circumstances indicating that several of the arrested individuals have been procuring material and effects for the making of explosives in connection with preparations for a terrorist act.

The reason why arrests have been made in the case at the present moment is due to the difficulty of assessing more precisely how far the individuals were in their terrorist preparations. Based on the above, and seen in the light of the current situation as regards terrorism, the Danish Security Intelligence Service has assessed it necessary not to run any undue risk and has, therefore, chosen to effect the arrests now.

In this connection, it should be underlined that it is the main task of the Danish Security Intelligence Service to counteract and prevent terrorist acts from taking place and, consequently, the Service has found it opportune to proceed to the arrests now due to circumstances uncovered indicating that persons among the arrested have been making preparations for a terrorist act.

The current case will have no direct affect on the level of threat against Denmark, which is already generally increased. However, it is obvious that the Danish Security Intelligence Service pays attention to the possible extent that this case might give rise to responses other places.

The above arrests are not linked with the German case recently mentioned in the media”.