state-sponsored murder

State-sponsored murder denotes a killing that is planned, ordered or carried out by a state or by its intelligence services and security apparatus — typically directed at political opponents, dissidents or persons the state regards as a threat. The term is not a legal category in Danish criminal law, but is used as a descriptive and political label in criminal-policy and security-policy contexts. In the sense used on this site, state-sponsored murder covers targeted liquidations in which a state's authorities act as the originators of the killing — either by directly dispatching killers or by instructing agents who act on the state's behalf.

The killing of the Chechen dissident Zelimkhan Khangoshvili in Berlin in August 2019 is a central example: a Russian citizen with ties to the Russian intelligence services shot and killed Khangoshvili in full public view. The German court found that the killing had been carried out on the orders of Russian state authorities.

In legal terms, acts falling within the concept of state-sponsored murder are dealt with in Denmark under the ordinary provisions on murder and manslaughter. There is no separate statutory basis specifically criminalising killings committed on a state's behalf as an independent category of offence. The state dimension may nevertheless matter for the political and diplomatic consequences of the case, and for the assessment of motive and culpability.

Internationally, state-commissioned killings can raise questions under international law and human rights conventions, including the right to life. States may be held responsible before international courts and bodies, but individual criminal liability for the actors who carry out the killing is still pursued under the national criminal law of the country where the offence was committed.