Justice minister admits lying to parliament

Morten Bødskov said he had to lie about why a trip to Christiania was cancelled in order to protect an intelligence source

admin

Dec 10, 2013

Justice Minister Morten Bødskov (S) has admitted lying to parliament about his involvement in preventing MP Pia Kjærsgaard (DF) from attending a trip to Christiania.

The head of the domestic intelligence agency PET, Jakob Scharf, has already admitted asking his officers to illegally pry into Kjærsgaard's calendar to find a date when she could not attend the trip.

Both he and Bødksov have already explained that intelligence sources informed them that there was a security risk to Kjærsgaard if she attended, but that, in order to protect the intelligence source, they could not tell parliament's legal committee or Kjærsgaard.

Fabricated excuse
Responding to 33 questions posed to him by the legal committee, Bødskov admitted that he helped fabricate a reason why the committee could not attend its planned trip to Christiania on February 29.

"I am meeting parliament's legal committee in the morning [today] and will explain the reason why they could not be given the real reason," he told TV Avisen. "I will also deeply apologise that the legal committee was put in this position. They couldn't be given the real reason because we wanted to shield them from anything happening to them out there."

Bødskov's job may be on the line, and government support party Enhedslisten has repeatedly demanded that the minister come clean about his involvement in the case.

Enhedlisten's legal spokesperson, Pernille Skipper, said that the party will decide whether to withdraw their support for the minister after this morning's meeting.