PET chief says the decision to investigate Findsen/Hjort was his

It was the head of the Danish Security and Intelligence Agency (PET), Finn Borch Andersen’s and the intelligence service’s decision to initiate the investigation into the cases against Lars Findsen and Claus Hjort Frederiksen, which were dropped last week, Borch Andersen says in a written statement on PET’s website Monday. Here, for the first time, he relates directly to the fact that both Findsen and Hjort Frederiksen have previously implied or directly claimed that the cases against them were politically motivated. “We investigate the cases we are required to by law. This is the essence of the Rule of Law, and frankly, I think the suggestion that the whole case is driven by personal or political considerations is absurd,” Borch Andersen’ says. “For me it is quite simple; according to the PET Act it is PET’s responsibility to prevent, investigate and counteract leaks. We take this task very seriously and will continue to do so in the future. Thus, it was also my and PET’s – and no one else’s – decision to launch an investigation into large-scale leaks from the intelligence services, which led to the arrests in December 2021. It was a broad investigation that I vouch for 100 percent.” /ritzau/