Bookseller charged with terrorism again

Copenhagen Police have charged Said Mansour based on a tip from Scotland Yard

Danish-Moroccan Said Mansour, also known as ‘the bookseller from Brønshøj’, has once again been charged with violating terrorism laws, according to DR News.

Mansour has been charged with promoting terror, the same charge that he was convicted of in 2007 and for which he spent three and a half years in prison.

According to the head of the public prosecutor’s office, Dorrit Borgaard, the police have charged Mansour based on a tip from Scotland Yard in London.

“We received information from the British police which led to raids at several addresses in Copenhagen,” Borgaard told the BBC. “We arrested a person who has been charged, questioned and then released again. He has been charged via the criminal law paragraph that concerns terrorism.”

Mansour’s lawyer, Peter Horne, denied that his client had been arrested, although he did confirm that Mansour had previously published extremist material.

Copenhagen Police have started an investigation into the case, which they expect to take a considerable amount of time due to the amount of material that they have to sift  through.

The BBC has linked the arrest to the Islamic preacher Abu Qatada, who is currently in prison in the UK and awaiting a possible deportation to Jordan where he faces life in prison for terrorism. Mansour is also wanted in Jordan for the same reason.

Mansour first moved to Denmark from Morocco in 1983 to be family reunified with his sister. He received citizenship in 1988. The following year, he married a Danish woman, with whom he had four children. The woman converted to Islam, but the couple later divorced.

The news comes just a couple weeks after the ‘one-legged bomber’ Lors Doukaev was transferred to Belgium, where he will serve the remainder of his 12-year sentence.