The trial, which opened on June 24 before the Copenhagen District Court, marks a disproportionate state response to what has historically been routine student activism. When the six defendants occupied the university’s Museum Building on September 4, 2024, heavily armed officers responded with submachine guns, battering rams, and police dogs, a level of violence not deployed against campus protests in Denmark since the Second World War.

In addition to the charges of trespassing, one activist is charged with assaulting police for allegedly “wrenching himself free” from an officer’s grip during arrest at a separate protest. Two activists face additional charges for “assaulting officers” by hurting their feelings: one for saying “oink oink, piggy piggy,” and, revealing how Denmark’s notoriously racist police understands class, another activist has been charged for saying “class traitor” to a non-white cop. The two offending phrases were said, not shouted.

Prosecutors are seeking fines and criminal records for all six defendants. Their decision not to pursue prison sentences likely reflects their awareness that the case is legally questionable. By seeking only fines, they ensure the defendants cannot receive public defenders and must pay the full costs of their own legal counsel even if they win, burdening defandants with legal costs and avoiding the scrutiny that would come with guaranteed public defenders. One activist has nonetheless been granted a publicly funded defense attorney, courtesy of a clerical error from the court.

According to Malver’s own account, posted to social media in the hours following the assault, he had been standing in the public square before the courthouse filming a video about the trial when an angry secret police officer first accosted him. The officer accused Malver of photographing illegally parked government vehicles, an act that is not a crime under Danish law, and demanded identification.

Malver, a trained human rights jurist who has built his career holding state power to account, refused.

Alerted now to the presence of secret police in the area, Malver began surveying his surroundings. He spotted an official ministerial vehicle bearing markings from the tiny nation’s Moderate Party-controlled Foreign Ministry, parked illegally nearby. Looking into the adjacent restaurant, he reportedly observed Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen inside, casually knocking back pints of beer. Malver filmed a brief, satirical video about the minister’s “parking permit” before returning to the courthouse to complete his coverage.

What happened next suggests the video had reached its target. Two uniformed officers soon accosted the journalist, who had placed his official press card in plain view on his body. When Malver mentioned that he was pursuing financial compensation for their illegal detention of him, one of the officers became visibly agitated, shouted in his face, and moved aggressively toward him.

Malver took a few steps back. The officers then attacked.

One officer forced Malver’s head against the pavement while another dropped a knee onto his skull. Officers also attempted to strangle the journalist during the assault.

Malver has long been a thorn in the side of Danish police, criticizing everything from routine brutality and operational incompetence to the wearing of extremist “Blue Life Matters” patches on uniforms, raising suspicions the assault was retaliatory. The attack on Malver comes amid a disturbing pattern of increased police brutality in Denmark. Just days earlier, officers in Aarhus were filmed shouting racist slurs at a suspect and kicking him in the head after he had already surrendered and was lying prone on the ground.

Earlier this year, a peaceful protest at the headquarters of shipping giant Maersk, where activists demonstrated against the company’s complicity in the Gaza genocide, descended into an orgy of violence. Unarmed protesters were surrounded by frenzied security forces and beaten with batons. A journalist from the independent outlet Arbejderen, covering the protest, was among those victimized, despite bearing clear press markings.

The square in front of the Copenhagen courthouse is heavily surveilled, and the assault on Malver was captured on multiple CCTV cameras, footage that has yet to be released to the public.

Following the beating, officers initially told Malver he had been arrested under provisions of the Police Act, an administrative detention measure, and that he had not been charged with any crime. He was transported to the Valby police station and placed in a holding cell. There, Malver’s requests for medical attention and legal counsel were both denied.

Officers also lied to Malver, telling him investigators were en route from another police station. When investigators arrived, seemingly unaware of that claim, they initially said they had just clocked in, before changing their story when Malver pressed them on whether they had traveled from a different facility.

Despite having been told that the detention was purely administrative, after four hours the police had fabricated something to charge him with and Malver was ultimately charged with assaulting his own attackers. The charge appears to rest on the claim that one officer allegedly scratched himself on Malver’s fingernails while beating the journalist.

Malver has since shown medical reports from the emergency room and video evidence of the assault to select journalists in an effort to prevent them from running stories based on distorted official narratives. He has declined to publish or surrender the material to establishment media before the officers has been questioned by Denmark’s so-called “Independent Police Complaints Board”, a body independent human rights observers say is notorious for failing to investigate complaints properly and for siding with officers in nearly all cases.

At least two legal proceedings are expected to emerge from the incident: Malver’s lawsuit for compensation for illegal detention, and the spurious criminal case against him for “assaulting” police.

Beirut, June 28 (Prensa Latina) Lebanese President Joseph Aoun today asked the United States to exert pressure on Israel to guarantee its withdrawal from the south of the country and ensure compliance with the framework agreement recently signed under Washington’s mediation.

The request was made during a telephone conversation with US President Donald Trump, who congratulated Aoun on the signing of the agreement reached between Beirut and Tel Aviv, the Lebanese Presidency reported.

According to the official statement, the Lebanese leader expressed his hope that the United States would help prevent violations of the agreement and ensure compliance with all commitments made, particularly by pressuring Israel to complete its withdrawal from the occupied territories in southern Lebanon and facilitate the deployment of the Lebanese Army to the international border.

The framework agreement, signed last Friday under US auspices after the fifth round of negotiations between Beirut and Tel Aviv, envisions a gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from areas in southern Lebanon, the deployment of the Lebanese Army in those areas, and the disarmament of non-state armed groups.

While Lebanese authorities consider the pact a step towards the recovery of national sovereignty, the Hezbollah movement rejected it, believing that it conditions the Israeli withdrawal on its disarmament, a stance that has triggered protests by supporters of the movement in Beirut.