Five men who were sentenced to life in prison in the district court and later acquitted in the high court in an attempted murder case have been awarded a total of 9,537,443.44 kroner in compensation for unjustified pre-trial detention. The ruling was made by Retten i Glostrup, Ritzau reported, according to TV 2, DR, Berlingske and Ekstra Bladet.
The individual awards range from 1,436,900 to 2,443,043.44 kroner. One of the men was held in detention for three years and four months. Process interest is to be added to the amounts from the dates the compensation claims were filed nearly three years ago, which means roughly three million kroner is added to the total.
The five men were charged with attempting to kill men from the rival gang Loyal To Familia (LTF) in episodes in May 2020. When Østre Landsret set aside the life sentences and released the five men, they had been in pre-trial detention for years.
Defence lawyer Michael Juul Eriksen, who represents one of the men, previously said his client was detained for three years and four months. On Thursday he said four of the five men were detained for roughly the same length of time, while the fifth was held for a shorter period.
Last year a total of 50.4 million kroner was paid out to citizens for unjustified imprisonment, according to figures from Rigspolitiet.