Danish historian takes KGB claims to EU court

In 2007, Bent Jensen, a former history professor at the University of Southern Denmark, claimed that Jørgen Dragsdahl, a security and defence correspondent at left-leaning newspaper Information, had been a KGB agent in the early 1980s.

"The archives have shown that Jørgen Dragsdahl was a KGB agent," Jensen wrote in right-leaning daily Jyllands-Posten. 

Shortly after, Dragsdahl filed charges against the writer for defamation and the case rumbled on through the court system until June 3, when the Supreme Court of Denmark found Jensen guilty and sentenced him to pay a 10,000 kroner (1,341 euros, $1,506) fine, 100,000 kroner in damages and around 500,000 kroner in legal costs for the claimant. 

The Supreme Court argued that Jensen "was aware that the Danish Security and Intelligence Service [PET] after an extensive investigation concluded that there was no basis... for pressing charges against Jorgen Dragsdahl." 

But Jensen said he had merely claimed the journalist was an "agent of influence", meaning his job was to influence public opinion, which would have been legal in Denmark. ...