(Bloomberg) -- A Swedish court handed a four-month prison term to the Danish far-right politician who started a series of Koran burnings that complicated the Nordic country’s accession to NATO.
According to the verdict from the Malmo District Court, Rasmus Paludan’s actions and statements when he burned copies of Islam’s holy book on two occasions in 2022 breached the Nordic country’s laws on hate speech.
“It is allowed to utter criticism in public against Muslims and Islam, but derogatory statements against a category of people can’t clearly stray beyond a factual and substantive discussion,” the presiding judge, Nicklas Soderberg, said in a statement. “In this case, there was no such discussion, and the statements were solely intended to defame and hurt Muslims.”
Some time after the events that he has now been convicted of, Paludan burned a translated copy of the Koran near Turkey’s embassy in Stockholm, angering the Turkish government who held the keys to Sweden’s membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. That incident was followed by similar events staged by others, which fueled further anger from Muslim countries, and led to attacks including a storming of the Swedish embassy in Iraq.
While Swedish law doesn’t prohibit burning books considered holy, it is illegal to threaten, insult or encourage violence against ethnic, religious and other groups. Paludan, who has dual Danish and Swedish citizenship, was given a harsher sentence as he has previously been convicted of similar crimes in Denmark.
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