A Danish appeal court on Friday reduced the sentence for the former head of the Danish secret service, Jakob Scharf, who was charged with revealing classified information in a book about his seven-year term in office.
Scharf was ordered to pay a fine of 10,000 kroner ($1,470), the Eastern High Court ruled.
In early 2019, the Copenhagen city court had handed the former PET chief, a four-month prison sentence.
He was charged with revealing too much about how the service cooperates with other agencies and its operations.
Scharf was charged with breaching a code of confidentiality on 28 points.
The appeal court acquitted Scharf on 27 of the points, although the court was not unanimous on all counts.
The lower court ruled that there were 24 breaches in the book.
During Scharf’s term as PET head between 2007 and 2013, the service was involved in thwarting several terrorist plots, targeting Denmark in the wake of the 2005 publication by the Jyllands-Posten newspaper of cartoons of the prophet Mohammed that triggered an international crisis.
The book “7 ar for PET” (Seven Years with the PET) was written by journalist Morten Skjoldager and included interviews with Scharf.
However, Danish daily Politiken published the book as a supplement, citing freedom of the press.
The Eastern High Court said the state was ordered to pay the costs for both trials.
