Danish Whistleblower Anders Kærgaard has Passed Away

Former intelligence officer and whistleblower Anders Kærgaard, born in 1972, has died, his wife announced on Facebook. Kærgaard gained recognition in 2012 when he exposed abuses against civilians by Iraqi forces during Operation Green Desert in 2004, which Danish soldiers according to him observed without intervening. He tried to report the abuses and presented a video recording of the incident. He was fined for not sharing information with the Defense Auditing Corps. Twenty-three Iraqis sued Denmark over their treatment in custody, but the Danish Supreme Court ruled in May last year that the Defense Ministry was not responsible for the maltreatment. The case has now been taken to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. Kærgaard left the army after serving in Iraq, later received a human rights award in 2015, and co-founded both the Cold War Museum Stevnsfort and the NGO Veron supporting future whistleblowers.