-----
Jyllands-Posten, late Sat, Feb. 23, by Orla Borg, Jakob Rubrin and
Michael Ulveman:

The arresting of Amdi is a catastrophe for Tvind. The continued custody
of Amdi which is pleasing the Holstebro police is not only a defeat for
the Tvind leader himself but a disaster for the empire which continues
its clandestine operation within houndreds of organisations all over the
world. Kirsten Larsen looked uneasy in her dark sunglasses and designer
outfit at the trial.

The only thing Mogens Amdi Petersen said when FBI seized him and told
him that Danish police had a warrant for his arrest via Interpol, was
that he wanted to see a lawyer. He had taken a risk by choosing Los
Angeles for his transit, since all U.S. airports are in an even higher
state of alert during the olympic games. In addition he was unlucky,
because only the day before had the federal authorities taken over the
supervision of all the airports.

In order to fathom the extent of the mess Amdi Petersen is caught in,
you will have to understand that he has no official position of power in
the Tvind organisation. Since Petersen left the position as head of the
Travelling Folk Highschool in 1979, the spokesman Poul Jørgensen has
consistently played down Petersen's role. According to Jørgensen, Amdi
Petersen is only one of many members of the Teachers group and his task
is just to produce teaching media for the schools. That was not the way
Robert Shapiro described his handcuffed client in the courtroom,
however. Instead he assured that Mr Petersen was responsible for the
setting up of hundreds of schools and giving out millions of dollars to
the poor countries in Africa.

The mere fact that Mogens Amdi Petersen chose to engage one of the most
expensive defense lawyers in the U.S. is sufficient evidence that he is
not the peripheral individual with an annual income of 50,000 to 70,000
kroner, which has been claimed.

The arrest was a hard blow to Petersen's authority. Since he doesn't
hold any official positions in the Tvind empire his power is built
entirely on his personality and his ability to play hide and seek with
the authorities. "He has always succeeded in evading the authorities,
but here he fell victim of a routine check at an airport. That is a blow
to his prestige and the invulnerability which his leadership is built
on. The magic surrounding him will disappear because of this", says Jes
Fabricius-Møller, author of the book "På Sejrens Vej" /The Road to
Victory/ about Tvind.

That is why the arrest is such a catastrophe to Amdi Petersen and to
Tvind. A former member of Tvind's Teachers group says that the arrest
will undermine Tvind in the long run. "In the short run things will just
go on as usual. The groups are self-governing and run schools,
plantations, factories etc. But if a trial were to show that Amdi not
only has deceived the Danish tax authorities but also members of Tvind's
Teachers group by transferring money to himself, it will make the whole
Tvind system wobble", says the ex-member, who doesn't want to step
forward and reveal his/her name.

"Up till now people in the Teachers group have been of the opinion that
it is "they" - the evil authorities and the media - against "us" - the
good Tvind people, who fought for a cause. Right now the arrest of Amdi
is seen as persecution, but if Tvind people realize that Amdi has
betrayed the ideals and used them for his own benefit and the benefit of
5 to 12 absolute top leaders of Tvind, there might be a reaction, which
might drive people to abandon Tvind. Because that would really be the
worst betrayal of all. They have worked hard for their ideals but Amdi
had another goal, his own gain", the ex-member says.

At the police station in Holstebro people had a hard time controlling
their enthusiasm over the Los Angeles catch. The tax swindle case
includes seven top leaders of the Tvind organisation, but the villain of
the piece has always been Mogens Amdi Petersen. Without the Tvind leader
himself the whole case would have faded.

Amdi Petersen's private luggage

Not only are the Danish police looking forward to having Petersen
extradited but the investigators are also dying to get their hands on
Petersen's private luggage, which they have had confiscated in
connection with the arrest. During the hectic hours of the arrest at the
airport, Petersen eagerly tried to get his personal belongings brought
to Kirsten Larsen. According to American law you are allowed to give
your luggage to a personal acquaintance. But the American authorities
didn't manage to find Kirsten Larsen who had disappeared at the airport.

Instead Danish police went in and asked their American colleagues to
confiscate Amdi's luggage. What will it reveal about the Tvind leader's
doings? About his private financial transactions? About the Tvind
empire's construction? An experienced investigator of financial crime
says to Jyllands-Posten that it can be of invaluable importance in a
financial crime investigation when the main suspect is arrested without
having had any premonitions.

Great gaps in the investigation

Even if the investigators in Holstebro have managed to fit in a lot of
pieces in the big Tvind jigsaw puzzle since they raided the headquarters
in Grindsted in April and confiscated a number of computers, there are
still big gaps in their knowledge of Mogens Amdi Petersen's world empire.
After Amdi's disappearance from the face of the earth 22 years ago, one
of the most important questions the police will have to ask him is:
"Where do you live? Where have you been staying?"

Everything points to the fact that Amdi Petersen no longer lives or
resides at his former luxury hideaway on the tropical Fisher Island,
because Tvind's two apartments there have just been up for sale.
He doesn't live in Denmark either, since he officially emigrated last
year in order to - again, officially - settle down in the U.K.
It isn't likely that he lives at the Mexican holiday residence to which
Amdi Petersen and Kirsten Larsen were on their way when they were
stopped at Los Angeles airport.

Wherever he may live, he won't go there for a while now. The disaster is
already a fact for Amdi.

----
Jyllands-Posten, late Sat, Feb. 23, by Knud Wilhelmsen:

The Danish dream team

Thanks to the good preparations made back in Denmark commissioner Jens
Kaasgaard, Holstebro police, never feared that Mogens Amdi Petersen
would be set free.

Topnotch defense lawyer Robert Shapiro, member of the so called dream
team which in 1995 managed to get American football hero O.J. Simpson
acquitted of double murder, tried his best on Friday to tear apart the
translated Danish evidence material against the Tvind leader. He
objected against the wording and the lack of certain official stamps,
but to no avail. Judge Hillman decided to keep Petersen in custody for
the time being.

In the hectic hours of the night commissioner Kaasgaard contacted the
Danish Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Foreign Affairs to get
assistance by their experts on the extradition issue. Kaasgaard has no
idea as to when Petersen can be extradited to Denmark. "We have heard
that Petersen and his lawyer intend to appeal to the court about the
bail case, but I don't know enough about the American legal system to
estimate what time frame we are talking about. What we do have is an
agreement with the U.S. about their taking Danish interests into
consideration. And in my opinion, all conditions for extraditions are
met in this case. We might be a small country, but we can handle this.
We have our own Danish dream team.

-----
Jyllands-Posten, Sat, Feb. 23, by Knud Wilhelmsen:

One reason for the Los Angeles court to decide not to grant bail for
Petersen was the information from the American prosectuor stating that
Amdi Petersen had applied for citizenship in both Zimbabwe and Brazil.
Commissioner Kaasgaard, Holstebro police, is happy about the judge's
decision. "This is really a good point in time of our investigation for
this to happen. We have reached a point at which we need to talk to him.
We need to know what he has to say to the accusations", Kaasgaard says
to Ritzau.

The Los Angeles court will now try the very case of extradition.
Prosecutor Poul Gade who has been present in the U.S. the last few days
is now on his way back to Denmark. He will however go through the case
with the American authorities on Monday morning and then see what more
information they might need. If he has to return to the U.S. at some
point, he will.

The court hearing on Friday was seemingly mostly about technicalities of
minor importance, like translation issues and stamps, but Kaasgaard
won't comment on the proceedings to the Danish press. The American legal
system differs from the Danish one and Kaasgaard doesn't intend to risk
making any mistakes and say something that might be turned against the
prosecutor side.

Amdi Petersen is prosecuted together with six other Tvind people, but
the Holstebro commissioner is not afraid that the others will try to run off.
"We have contacted their lawyers about their questioning and we are
confident that there won't be any problem", he says.