Hostage drama was a media stunt

Prisoner taken hostage yesterday was in on the act

Apr 16, 2013

Yesterday's high-drama hostage situation at the Copenhagen Police headquarters wasn't quite what it seemed.

The hostage taker, a prisoner in his 30s at the facility's high-security detention centre, told his lawyer that the incident was a cry for help.

After a nearly two-hour wait, the lawyer, Finn Walther Petersen, who has previously defended Hells Angels gang members, was admitted entrance to the facility to speak with his client. There, he was handed a piece of paper that said that the hostage situation was carried out to bring attention to his detention in the facility. The prisoner taken hostage, a man in his 20s, was also in on the act.

"Truthfully, it wasn't really taking a hostage," Petersen said according to metroXpress newspaper. "It was about making the press aware of his situation."

According to Petersen, his client has been held in the facility, which houses 25 inmates who require extra security measures, for 20 months and has tried unsuccessfully to get out of the gang environment through the government's criticised exit programme.

After the perpetrator spoke with his lawyer, he released his 'hostage' and surrendered to the police.

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