A Swedish court today sentenced an extreme right-wing politician to four months in prison for inciting hatred against an ethnic group, due to his statements at political rallies two years ago.
The 42-year-old Danish-Swedish citizen has not been named, but Swedish media have identified him as Rasmus Paludan, the founder and leader of the Danish nationalist anti-immigration party Stram Kurs. He was previously convicted by a Danish court on similar charges, the District Court in Malmö announced.
In 2022, the accused sent offensive messages to Muslims, Arabs and Africans during protests he led in the southern city of Malmö, the court said. He also set fire to a copy of the Koran, Islam's holy book, on at least one occasion, and in response, a violent wave of riots swept the country.
The court said that his statements against Muslims cannot be treated as criticism of Islam, or as work in a political campaign.
Court President Niklas Sodeberg said that it is permissible to make critical statements about Islam or Muslims, for example, but disrespecting a group of people must not clearly cross the line of valid discussion.
He added that during the rally in Malmö in April and September 2022, there was no talk of such discussions, but that Paludan's public statements only amounted to insulting Muslims.
The court was particularly interested in whether the politician knew that the protests were recorded and published on Facebook. Paludan said that he was not aware that this was being done, but the district court disagreed with that, pointing out that his actions at the rallies would have been completely illogical if he had not known that it was being posted on Facebook.
Paludan, who is a lawyer by profession, told Swedish media that he was not surprised by the verdict and that he would appeal it.
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