Danish former Stasi collaborator sues historian for libel

A former unofficial collaborator with the East German Stasi intelligence service appeared at Copenhagen City court in a defamation case against historian Bent Jensen and publisher Gyldendal over two statements made in the 2014 book Ulve, får og vogtere I (Wolves, Sheep and Guards I).

The former collaborator, Jan Aage Jeppesen, who now lives in Spain, admits to having been in contact with the former official state security service of the German Democratic Republic, but disputes accusations made in Jensen's book that he "caused several East German citizens to end up in East German prisons," and "spied against Denmark".

Jeppesen was given code names including Hamster and Apollo and was paid for various assignments including infiltrating the Ost-West Transfer group, which helped smuggle East German citizens to the West.

He also gave the Stasi a description of Danish security service PET's offices and took photographs of Polish activists in Copenhagen, the court heard.

But he denies the two comments made in the 2014 book, saying there is no documentation to support them. ...