A Copenhagen Court has sentenced a Polish man to four months imprisonment for punching Danish Prime Minister (PM), Mette Frederiksen, on June 6, 2024.
The court found him guilty of assault and subsequently ordered his immediate deportation, banning him from entering Denmark for five years.
The 39 year old who cannot be named due to legal restrictions pleaded not guilty after being charged with violence against a public servant, as well as several counts of indecent exposure and fraud relating to other incidents.
While facing trial, he told the court that he was too drunk to remember what happened, adding that he was also having “a bad day” when he met Ms Frederiksen.
The Court ordered that the defendant be deported after serving his jail time, adding that he will pay the cost of the case.
The defendant had pleaded not guilty to the assault charge but guilty to some of the other charges.
The PM suffered minor neck and shoulder injuries as a result of the attack, which took place in a square in the capital, just two days before elections to the European Parliament.
She said at the time she was “shaken” by the incident, but “fine”, though she withdrew from the last day of election campaigning.
The PM did not appear to testify as a witness in the trial
However, in the testimony of one of her bodyguards, the defendant approached the PM on a busy street, said something incomprehensible to her and gave her “a hard punch with his fist on her shoulder”.
Ms Frederiksen, 46, is leader of Denmark’s Social Democrats, the biggest party in Denmark’s coalition government.
She took office in 2019, making her the youngest prime minister in Danish history.