Expulsion of EU citizen

Case no. 19/12019
Judgment delivered on 19 June 2019

The Prosecution Service
vs.
T

T, an EU citizen, had been sentenced to three years and three months in prison for illegal weapons possession and aggravated assault against his former spouse. The issue before the Supreme Court was whether the expulsion of T, who had resided in Denmark for more than 10 years, was based on imperative grounds of public security, as required by the EU Residence Directive.

The Supreme Court stated that T had been punished for being in possession of two handguns with ammunition at his residence and for having given them to an acquaintance for safekeeping. On the evidence and the other information available in the case, the Supreme Court considered that the weapons in a few cases had been used for hunting and had been shown to acquaintances at T’s residence. There was no basis for concluding that the weapons were held in a criminal environment or otherwise had been acquired with a view to committing some kind of criminal act other than illegal weapons possession.

Although the illegal weapons possession and the assault committed against T’s former spouse were serious crimes, the Supreme Court found that the offenses could not be considered to have been committed in a way that was particularly serious or posing a direct threat to the safety and security of the population. As a result, the Supreme Court found that there was no such exceptional circumstances as referred to in the Residence Directive in this case, and that it was therefore not justified to expel T on imperative grounds of public security.

The High Court had reached the same conclusion.