Brian Sandberg, one of Denmark’s most notorious gang members, is back on the streets.
The Eastern High Court today acquitted Sandberg, who for years was a leader in the biker gang Hells Angels, on two counts of attempted murder. He was, however, found guilty of ordering an August 2009 attack that was at the heart of one of the largest gang trials in the nation’s history.
Sandberg had been found guilty of one of the attempted murder charges at the city court in Glostrup last year, as part of an historic trial involving 16 members and associates of biker gangs and a turncoat witness known only by the initials MFP.
Sandberg received a sentence of eleven years and ten months from the city court. But with the Eastern High Court finding him not guilty on the attempted murder charges, the former biker, who claims to have left the Hells Angels in August for personal reasons, was released based on time served.
Based largely on the testimony of MFP, 15 of the 16 gang members were sentenced to a total of 135 years in prison last September on charges of attempted murder, a 2009 group attack at Brorsons Kirke and weapons charges.
The August 2009 attack was carried out as part of an ongoing conflict between the Hells Angels and immigrant gangs. As part of the feud, Sandberg was the target of a shooting as he dined at an upscale restaurant with fellow gang members two months later. Earlier that same year, Sandberg was shot while at a juice bar in the city centre but survived.
Seeking revenge for the attacks against Sandberg, Hells Angels members carried out the August 2009 group attack, whichleft one man seriously injured, as well as an attempted October 2009 attack at an internet café that proved unsuccessful when individuals within the café fired first.
In an incident related to the feud, MFP fired seven shots at a kiosk owner in September 2009. The kiosk owner survived but was seriously injured. MFP later confessed to five attempted murders and two assaults and decided to break the gang’s code of silence and co-operate with the police. He became the prosecution’s star witness in the trial of 16 of his former comrades and had to be put under heavy protection due to threats against his life.
The city court had ruled that Sandberg was guilty of ordering the August 2009 attack and the attempted shooting at the internet cafe, but not guilty of being behind MFP’s shooting of the kiosk owner. The Eastern High Court today ruled, however, that Sandberg was only behind the Brorsons Kirke attack.
No sentencing decisions were made today in the Eastern High Court. Both sides will present their sentencing arguments over the coming days.
