Denmark arrests 3 anti-Iran terrorists on charges of spying for Saudi Arabia
Denmark's intelligence service says it has arrested and charged three members of the Saudi-backed anti-Iran al-Ahvaziya terrorist group for spying on behalf of the kingdom in the Scandinavian country.
Finn Borch Andersen, head of the Danish Security and Intelligence Service, also known as PET, told a press conference in Copenhagen on Monday that the three individuals "carried out espionage activities on behalf of a Saudi intelligence service from 2012 to 2018."
Borch Andersen said PET launched an investigation in November 2018 into the trio who live in Denmark to determine whether they "had publicly condoned acts of terrorism or committed other criminal offenses."
During the investigation "it was uncovered that they have been involved in espionage activities in Denmark on behalf of Saudi Arabia," he said.
"Among other things, they have collected information about individuals in Denmark and abroad and passed on this information to a Saudi intelligence service," Borch Andersen added.
Al-Ahvaziya group is comprised of communists, nationalists, socialists and Salafi members who, despite ideological and nominal differences, are united around one goal and one strategy, which is toppling the Iranian government and separating Khuzestan from the rest of Iran through armed conflict.
The group was born in 1980; soon after the Islamic Revolution in Iran. It was inspired by the ruling Ba’ath regime in neighboring Iraq at the time. It had already carried out a series of attacks in the southwestern province even before Saddam unleashed war against Iran.
The group has committed numerous crimes against Iranian targets over the past decades. Among them bomb attacks in public places, abductions, assassinations, kidnapping for ransom, shooting at tourists and blowing up oil pipelines.
Thousands of people have been killed or injured as a result of their actions. The group calls itself a movement but it lacks any popular backing inside Iran.
In September 2018, four members of the Saudi-backed terrorist group opened fire on soldiers and civilians during a military parade in Iran’s southern city of Ahvaz, claiming the lives of 25 people, including a four-year-old child.
The attack in that year came after a US-backed campaign to stir up unrest in Iranian cities fell flat. The effort, known as the Hot Summer Project, sought to whip up public anger over water and electricity shortages in the face of a protracted drought.
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