According to the prosecutor, Salwan Najem made himself guilty of incitement against a group of people when he, together with Momika, among other things, trampled and kicked on Korans, wrapped them in pork and set them on fire, while uttering derogatory and degrading comments about Muslims.
Najem has stated that the actions and statements should be considered as religious criticism protected by freedom of speech, but the Stockholm District Court believes that it "clearly exceeded" the limits of objective debate and criticism.
Directed against a group of people
The demonstrations have "on every occasion" expressed contempt for the group of people, Muslims, writes the court in a press release.
"There is a great deal of room within the framework of freedom of speech to be critical of a religion in an objective and well-founded debate. However, expressing oneself about religion does not give a free pass to do or say whatever one wants without risking offending the group that holds that belief", says the presiding judge Göran Lundahl in a comment.
The sentence will be a conditional sentence and day fines.
Prosecutor Daniel Suneson says that the court has ruled in accordance with what he pleaded, where the Koran burning should be seen as one of several parts of an action that reaches the level of incitement against a group of people.
It is not the Koran burning in itself, but the Koran burning in combination with what one does with the Koran and how one expresses oneself in connection with it, he says.
Will appeal
The verdict will, however, be appealed, says Najem's lawyer Mark Safaryan.
The problematic thing about this is that two people are being convicted together and in agreement for a freedom of speech offense, when the fundamental principle is that each person is responsible for their own statements.
Mark Safaryan says that his client's statements during the gatherings differed drastically from what Momika said.
My client is very theological in his description and he has absolutely no intention of offending Muslims as a group of people. He has directed his criticism against the religion in certain aspects and made references to the Koran.
The Koran burnings received extensive international attention and led to a diplomatic crisis for Sweden. According to the Security Police, the actions contributed to the terrorist threat level being raised.
The verdict would have come earlier last week, but was postponed due to the murder of Salwan Momika. The 38-year-old was shot to death in his home in Södertälje, allegedly on the balcony, on the evening of January 29. The charges against him were dropped after the murder, and the verdict therefore only concerns Najem.
Incitement against a group of people is a restriction of freedom of speech regulated in the Penal Code, Chapter 16, Section 8:
Anyone who, in a statement or other communication that is disseminated, threatens or expresses contempt for a group of people or another such group of people with reference to race, skin color, national or ethnic origin, religion, or sexual orientation, shall be convicted of incitement against a group of people and sentenced to imprisonment for up to two years or, if the offense is minor, to a fine.
If the offense is gross, the sentence shall be imprisonment for at least six months and up to four years. When assessing whether the offense is gross, particular attention shall be paid to whether the communication had a particularly threatening or offensive content and was disseminated to a large number of people in a way that was likely to attract significant attention.
Source: The Penal Code
