Swedish court sentences far-right politician for insulting Muslims

MALMO, Sweden — A Swedish court sentenced on Tuesday a far-right politician to four months in jail for two counts of “incitement against an ethnic group” after making hateful comments at political rallies two years ago.

The Danish-Swedish 42-year-old man, who was not named but has been identified by Swedish media as Rasmus Paludan, founder and head of the Danish nationalist anti-immigration party Stram Kurs, had been previously convicted and sentenced by a Danish court on a similar charge, the Malmo District Court said.

In 2022, Paludan made his offensive remarks directed at Muslims, Arabs and Africans during protests that he led in the southern city of Malmo in 2022, the court said. He also burned a copy of the Quran, Islam's holy book, on at least one occasion. In response, a violent wave of riots swept the country.

Some observers also say Paludan’s actions may have momentarily risked Sweden’s chances of joining NATO after increasing political tensions with Turkey. Sweden joined the alliance in March this year.

The court in a statement Tuesday said Paludan's remarks against Muslims “cannot be excused as criticism of Islam or as political campaign work.”

Chief Councilor Nicklas Söderberg, the court’s chairman, said: “It is permitted to publicly make critical statements about, for example, Islam and also Muslims, but the disrespect of a group of people must not clearly cross the line for a factual and valid discussion."

He added that during the Malmo rallies in April and September 2022 “there was no question of any such discussion,” and that Paludan’s public statements “only amounted to insulting Muslims."

The court took particular interest in whether the politician knew the protests were filmed and published on Facebook. Paludan had said that he wasn't aware of it but the district court disagreed and said his “actions at the gatherings would be downright illogical if he didn’t know about the publication on Facebook.”

Paludan, a lawyer by profession, told Swedish media outlets that he wasn’t surprised by the verdict.

“It was expected. We will appeal,” the Swedish newspaper Expressen cited him as saying.