A Danish high-court ruling has overturned an indefinite detention order against 43-year-old Wasim Essam Hajress, a man previously judged too dangerous to release due to five rapes he committed. He has now gone from what could have been a life sentence to a fixed prison sentence of two and a half years, a shocking judicial and legal reversal.
In December 2025, the Court of Viborg, Hajress was found so dangerous that the court ruled he should be locked up indefinitely. However, now, the Western High Court, based on an unanimous decision, has taken a different view and has changed the district court’s indefinite detention judgment to a prison sentence of two and a half years.
It is important to note the “indefinite detention” was not the same as a life sentence but theoretically allowed the man to be detained for the remainder of his life. It is generally used in severe cases when a convicted person is considered a serious threat to society and likely to reoffend.
It is also not the standard practice to impose indefinite detention for rape in Denmark but because of Hajress’s violent history of rape, the district court felt that it was necessary as he is too dangerous for the Danish public.
According to Special Prosecutor Malene Christensen of the Attorney General in Viborg, the high court, contrary to the city court, considered that there was no basis for indefinite detention, according to Danish news outlet Presse-Fotos.
Since 2003, Hajress has been convicted of a total of five rapes on Danish soil, which include but are not limited to the following cases. There is no public information available about the details of the 2003 rape case, possibly due to the fact that it is more than two decades ago.
In July 2006, he detained a woman and attempted to rape her in an apartment in Copenhagen. She fled naked after being robbed of her clothes.
In October 2006, he detained a 16-year-old girl and raped her with penetration in an elevator in Huntingvej on Nørrebro, Copenhagen.
In April 2018, he raped a 19-year-old woman in a basement room in Roskilde.
In 2024, he forced a woman in Silkeborg to perform oral sex on him and then raped her.
Hajress also faces a deportation order and a lifelong entry ban.
