A Danish appeals court has replaced an indefinite preventive-detention order with a 2½-year prison sentence for stateless Palestinian Wasim Essam Hajress, who has been convicted in five rape-related cases spanning more than two decades.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom.
A Danish high court has overturned an indefinite detention order imposed on a repeat sex offender and replaced it with a fixed prison sentence of two and a half years, despite a criminal history involving five rape-related convictions in Denmark.
A unanimous jury at the Western High Court reversed the preventive-detention portion of the sentence imposed on Wasim Essam Hajress by the Court of Viborg in December 2025, concluding that the legal requirements for keeping him in indefinite detention had not been met.
Hajress, a stateless Palestinian born in Lebanon, has been convicted in connection with five rape or attempted-rape cases in Denmark dating back more than two decades, according to Danish reporting on the High Court decision.
Special Prosecutor Malene Christensen of the regional prosecutor’s office in Viborg said the appeals court reached a different conclusion from the lower court about whether Hajress met the threshold for preventive detention.
The original order was considerably more severe than an ordinary fixed prison sentence because Danish “forvaring,” or preventive detention, carries no predetermined release date.
It is not technically the same as a life sentence. Rather, Danish law permits courts to impose the measure on people convicted of serious offenses, including rape and other serious sexual crimes, when the defendant is considered a substantial danger to the life, health, bodily integrity or freedom of others and detention is considered necessary to prevent further offenses.
A person sentenced to preventive detention does not automatically remain incarcerated for life. Danish authorities must ensure that the measure is not maintained longer than necessary. Because it is open-ended, however, detention can continue far beyond an ordinary fixed sentence if courts continue to determine that the person remains dangerous.
That distinction makes the Western High Court’s ruling significant. Instead of leaving Hajress subject to an open-ended period of confinement based on future assessments of dangerousness, the court imposed a definite term of two and a half years.
The Court of Viborg had taken the opposite position in December, finding that Hajress’ history of sexual violence made preventive detention necessary even though such sentences are not routinely imposed in rape cases.
His record stretches back to at least 2003, according to Danish reporting.
In July 2006, Hajress detained a woman inside a Copenhagen apartment and attempted to rape her. The woman escaped after her clothes had been taken from her.
Several months later, in October 2006, he raped a 16-year-old girl in an elevator on Jagtvej in Copenhagen’s Nørrebro district.
In April 2018, Hajress participated in the gang rape of a 19-year-old woman in a basement room in Roskilde.
His latest case involved a woman in Silkeborg in 2024. Hajress forced her to perform oral sex before raping her, according to the court reporting. The conviction became another factor in the Viborg court’s decision to impose preventive detention.
Publicly available reporting provides fewer details about the earliest case in his record, but Danish coverage states that his rape-related convictions date back to 2003.
Under Denmark’s criminal code, prior offending is among the factors courts may consider when deciding whether a person convicted of a serious sexual offense presents enough continuing danger to justify preventive detention. The law specifically permits the sanction for rape and other serious sexual offenses when the court finds a substantial danger to others and concludes ordinary imprisonment would not adequately address that risk.
Despite Hajress’ criminal history, the Western High Court determined that the threshold was not satisfied in this case and substituted the 2½-year prison term.
The ruling did not eliminate the immigration consequences of his conviction.
Hajress was also ordered deported from Denmark and given a lifetime ban on reentry. He was further ordered to pay court costs and compensation to his victim.
The deportation order had also been challenged as part of his appeal, but the High Court retained it while changing the punishment from indefinite preventive detention to ordinary imprisonment.
The result leaves a striking difference between the assessments of the two courts.
The Viborg court viewed Hajress’ repeated sexual offending as evidence that an open-ended sentence was necessary to protect the public. The Western High Court, while leaving his latest conviction and lifetime exclusion from Denmark intact, concluded that his case did not justify Denmark’s most restrictive preventive-detention measure.
He will instead serve a fixed sentence of two and a half years, followed by the consequences of the deportation order and lifelong prohibition on returning to Denmark.
Original article
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