Rasmus Paludan was charged with two cases of incitement against a group of people and one case of offenses against an individual. All the events took place in the Swedish city of Malmö in 2022. On Tuesday morning, the verdict was handed down in the Malmö district court. Paludan is sentenced to four months in prison for the two cases of incitement against a group of people. In both April and September 2022, Paludan held demonstrations in the Swedish city. Here he wrapped bacon around Islam’s holy book the Koran before setting it on fire. In addition, he called certain ethnic groups criminals and less intelligent. In addition to this, Paludan was charged for, during the demonstration in September, having said “Go home to Africa” to a person following the demonstration. He is said to have recorded this on his megaphone and played it right in front of the person 35 times. Correspondent Joakim Reigstad follows the trial against Rasmus Paludan in Stockholm. Video: news Appeals the verdict In the judgment from the Malmö district court, it is stated that the district court has assessed Paludan’s behavior as disrespectful towards Muslims, among others, and that his actions cannot be excused as criticism of Islam or as political campaign work. – It is permissible to publicly make critical statements about, for example, Islam and also about Muslims, but the disrespect of a group of people must not clearly cross the line for a factual and valid discussion. In these cases, there was no question of any such discussion. Instead, the statements amounted only to insulting Muslims, said district court judge Nicklas Söderberg in the judgment that came on Tuesday afternoon. The Swedish news agency TT writes that Paludan is also sentenced to pay compensation of 20,000 Swedish kroner to the victim, according to NTB. Paludan denies having done anything wrong and disagrees with the ruling. – I have announced via my defense lawyer that we will appeal to the Court of Appeal, he says to the news agency TT and refers to the Swedish Court of Appeal. Paludan also tells the Danish newspaper DR that he will appeal the verdict. – Four months is a sentence in ankle chains, but then I have appealed because I am totally innocent, Paludan tells the newspaper. Rasmus Paludan has particularly distinguished himself through countless Koran burnings. Here from Stockholm in the winter of 2023 outside the Turkish embassy. Photo: TT NEWS AGENCY / Reuters Who is Rasmus Paludan Photo: Håkon Mosvold Larsen Born on 2 January 1982 in Nordsjælland, Denmark. Founder and leader of the right-wing radical political party Stram Kurs. Ran for the Danish parliamentary election in 2019, but received far from enough votes to be elected. Wanted to stand for the Riksdag election in Sweden in 2022, but did not collect enough signatures. Has a Danish courage and a Swedish father. Therefore legally both Danish and Swedish citizenship. Trained as a lawyer and had an internship at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Convicted of, among other things, racism and defamation in Denmark in 2020. Indicted for incitement against population groups in Sweden in 2024. The witness from a secret location The trial itself took place in Malmö District Court for two days in mid-October. Rasmus Paludan, who has traveled to Sweden to demonstrate on several occasions, claimed ahead of the trial that it is no longer safe for him to go to Sweden. He therefore testified in the trial via video link from a secret location, but still in Sweden. The prosecutor in the case, Adrien Combier-Hogg, showed several times films from the demonstrations – or public meetings, as Paludan himself calls them. In the videos, Paludan says that the prophet Muhammad is a rapist, that the Koran is a “huge book of shit” and that it is problematic to strive to live like Muhammad. In the spring of 2022, Rasmus Paludan was on a kind of election campaign tour in Sweden. He wanted to run for the Riksdag election that autumn, but was unable to collect enough signatures. Photo: Henrik Montgomery/TT / NTB Much of the question in court was where the line between freedom of expression and incitement lies. The prosecution questioned whether that limit was violated when Paludan says in one of the videos played in court that it is “difficult to be a good person when you are Muslim” – The purpose of the law on incitement against a population group is that it first and must primarily protect vulnerable groups. The polarization seen in the 1930s will not happen. That is the background and that must be kept in mind, said prosecutor Adrien Combier-Hogg during the hearing in Malmö district court. Thinks he criticizes Islam not Muslims Much of Paludan’s defense consisted of convincing the judge that Paludan criticizes Islam as an idea, not individuals or a population group. The police did their best to keep counter-demonstrators away from Rasmus Paludan in Malmö. But Paludan himself believes that the police did too little and that he was hit by stones several times. Photo: Johan Nilsson/TT / NTB When Paludan’s defender, Olov Mattsson Dismats, was to question his client about the topic, the conversation went like this: – I am a critic of Islam and criticize Islam, not Muslims, said Paludan. – It is no coincidence that you say the word “Islam”, followed up the defender. – I want to criticize ideas, not people. – Did you intend to express distrust of Muslims? – No, only against those who threw stones at me, Paludan concluded. He had previously criticized the Swedish police’s failure to ensure his safety at several events. And that, for example, they would not protect him while he went for a walk in Rosengård in Malmö. Rosengård is a district with a high density of immigrants and several active criminal circles. Another point used in Paludan’s defense was that he has held a number of such meetings in Sweden and had the same message. Paludan questioned why he had not been charged for the earlier meetings. Was sentenced in Denmark Central to the case were nevertheless two sentences Paludan received in Denmark in 2019 and 2020. The legislation in the field is quite similar in Denmark and Sweden and the cases therefore seem comparable. In Denmark, Paludan received three months’ imprisonment for incitement against ethnic groups after similar meetings. Prosecutor Adrien Combier-Hogg submitted a claim for 8-9 months’ imprisonment for Rasmus Paludan. The defense counsel believed the client should be acquitted. The riots that followed in the wake of Paludan’s Koran burnings in Easter 2022 are among the most violent in Sweden in modern times. The riots in the wake of Paludan’s Koran burning are among the worst in Sweden for many years. Here is a bus full of fire in Malmö. Photo: Johan Nilsson/TT / TT NEWS AGENCY Published 05.11.2024, at 11.04 Updated 05.11.2024, at 15.02
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