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CRIME

Danish-Swedish extremist Rasmus Paludan charged with hate crimes

Rasmus Paludan, a Danish-Swedish far-right campaigner, has been charged with incitement against an ethnic group and insult.

Published: 7 August 2024 12:19 CEST
Rasmus Paludan
Rasmus Paludan pictured at a gathering near the Turkish embassy in Stockholm in 2023. Photo by: Fredrik Sandberg / TT

The charges stem from statements Paludan made about Muslims, Arabs, and Africans, which the Swedish Prosecution Authority (Åklagarmyndigheten) considers unlawful, the Swedish news bureau TT reported on Wednesday.

According to a press release from the Prosecutor’s Office, the charges relate to events that occurred in Malmö in April and September 2022.

“My assessment is that there are sufficient grounds to bring charges (against Paludan), and now the district court will consider the case,” senior prosecutor Adrien Combier-Hogg said in the press release.

Case background

During the Easter weekend of 2022, riots erupted in several Swedish cities after Paludan planned to burn Qurans in various locations across the country.

On April 16th, he had been granted permission to hold a public meeting in Landskrona, but the police later relocated the event to the outskirts of Malmö.

At this gathering, Paludan made several statements about Muslims, which the prosecution authorities believe constitute incitement against an ethnic group.

On September 6th of the same year, at another meeting in Malmö, Paludan made similar statements about Arabs and Africans, which were also deemed incitement against ethnic groups by the prosecutor.

Additionally, Paludan directed a series of messages at a person, which the prosecutor believes were intended to insult the person based on their skin colour, national, or ethnic origin.

For this, Paludan faces an additional charge of insult.

According to the Swedish Criminal Code, Chapter 5, Section 3, anyone who makes accusations, disparaging statements, or engages in humiliating behavior toward another person can be convicted of insult in Sweden if the act is likely to harm the other person’s self-esteem or dignity.

ALSO READ: When does a Quran burning qualify as a hate crime in Sweden?

When contacted by TT shortly after the announcement, Paludan stated that he had yet to be informed of the indictment.

“I have not heard anything. What I can say is that I was interrogated in Denmark, and at that time, I denied any crime,” he said.

Previous controversy

In July of 2023, Turkey issued an arrest warrant for Paludan for setting a copy of the Quran on fire in Stockholm in January.

At that time, a Swedish prosecutor dropped an investigation into Paludan for alleged hate crimes related to the January burning.

The prosecutor explained to DN that the act “targeted a symbol of the religion and not the group [of Muslims] itself, even if people are offended. That distinction is important.”

In 2020, the police attempted to ban Paludan from entering Sweden. However, they had to retract the ban after it was revealed that Paludan was entitled to Swedish citizenship through his Swedish father.

Member comments

  1. Nobody should be sent to jail for burning a book of any kind, regardless. All religions should be subject to criticism, without exception.

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POLITICS

Sweden Democrat justice committee chair steps down over hate crime suspicion

The Sweden Democrat head of parliament’s justice policy committee, Richard Jomshof, has stepped down pending an investigation into hate crimes.

Published: 13 September 2024 13:33 CEST
Updated: 13 September 2024 14:38 CEST
Sweden Democrat justice committee chair steps down over hate crime suspicion

Jomshof told news site Kvartal’s podcast that he had been called to questioning on Tuesday next week, where he’s been told he is to be formally informed he is suspected of agitation against an ethnic or national group (hets mot folkggrupp), a hate crime.

Prosecutor Joakim Zander confirmed the news, but declined to comment further.

“I can confirm what Jomshof said. He is to be heard as suspected on reasonable grounds of agitation against an ethnic or national group,” he told the TT newswire.

“Suspected on reasonable grounds” (skäligen misstänkt) is Sweden’s lower degree of suspicion, compared to the stronger “probable cause” (på sannolika skäl misstänkt).

The investigation relates to posts by other accounts which Jomshof republished on the X platform on May 28th.

One depicts a Muslim refugee family who is welcomed in a house which symbolises Europe, only to set the house on fire and exclaim “Islam first”. The other shows a Pakistani refugee who shouts for help and is rescued by a boat which symbolises England. He then attacks the family who helped him with a bat labelled “rape jihad”, according to TT.

Jomshof has stepped down from his position as chair of the justice committee while he’s under investigation.

“I don’t want this to be about my chairmanship of the committee, I don’t want the parties we collaborate with to get these questions again about whether or not they have confidence in me, but I want this to be about the issue at hand,” he said.

“The issue is Islamism, if you may criticise it or not, and that’s about free speech.”

It’s not the first time Jomshof has come under fire for his comments on Islam.

Last year, he called the Prophet Mohammed a “warlord, mass murderer, slave trader and bandit” in another post on X, sparking calls from the opposition for his resignation.

The Social Democrats on Friday urged Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, whose Moderate-led government relies on the Sweden Democrats’ support, not to let Jomshof return to the post as chair of the justice committee.

“The prime minister is to be the prime minister for the people as a whole,” said Ardalan Shekarabi, the Social Democrat deputy chairman of the justice committee, adding that it was “sad” that Jomshof had ever been elected chairman in the first place.

“When his party supports a person with clear extremist opinions, on this post, there’s no doubt that the cohesion of our society is damaged and that the government parties don’t stand up against hate and agitation,” TT quoted Shekarabi as saying.

Liberal party secretary Jakob Olofsgård, whose party is a member of the government but is seen as the coalition party that’s the furthest from the Sweden Democrats, wrote in a comment to TT: “I can say that I think it is reasonable that Richard Jomshof chooses to quit as chairman of the justice committee pending this process.”

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