Police: Copenhagen professor spied for Russians

[Editor’s note 28 August 2014: Timo Kivomäki was found guilty under the Danish paragraph 108, the so-called mild espionage paragraph, on 31 May 2012. Mild espionage is defined as aiding a foreign intelligence service without directly researching for them or informing for them. He was given a five month prison sentence. A resumé of the court’s decision can be found here. He served two and a half months in home arrest and four days of community service]

A professor at the Department of Political Science, University of Copenhagen, is suspected of helping Russian spies in Denmark. He has in all secrecy been arrested and charged with violating a paragraph in the Danish penal code called ‘the mild espionage paragraph’. This is according to weekly newspaper Weekendavisen which comes out tomorrow Friday, report Danish media.

The paragraph concerns persons who, without directly divulging state secrets, have aided a foreign intelligence service in operating in Denmark. Timo Kivimäki, who has been employed by the University of Copenhagen since 1999 has now been suspended.

According to Weekendavisen, the prosecutors claim Timo Kivimäki has held meetings with four Russian agents and delivered security briefings and information of interest to Russian intelligence.

Did analysis work, arguments

Kivimäki himself claims he is innocent of all the charges.

»The Russians that I have met, were as I perceive it normal diplomats from the embassy, and I have therefore not helped the intelligence service,« he says to Weekendavisen.

According to Kivimäki he carried out analysis work and formulated scientific arguments on security policy for a fee, for the Russians and for other diplomats and governments. The analyses have in this case been about Iraq, Iran and the territorial discussion about the Arctic. He was apparently arrested 8 September 2010 by the police intelligence service PET after years of surveillance.

UCPH: Suspension of prof. ‘normal procedure’

The University of Copenhagen writes on its official website ku.dk that professor Kivimäki was already suspended one year ago. It is normal procedure to suspend a staff member who is charged in a criminal case, it writes.

»We have been briefed by the police early on. Now the case has to go through the town court. I cannot therefore comment the case before there is a court ruling,« says Dean of the Social Sciences Troels Østergaard Sørensen.

miy@adm.ku.dk

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