Hat tip to Fria Tider and Svenne
"Opinion crime"
As you will read from a translation I did from Fria Tider (with help from my colleague, Svenne), a man in Sweden has been convicted for an "opinion crime" after he posted two Facebook messages in May and July of last year comparing Somalis with Roma gypsies.
The word, "åsiktsbrottet" in Swedish literally means opinion crime. Though Swedish law is not quite that harsh yet, a more apt description of the offense would be a hateful expression directed against a particular group of people. Svenne suspects that the author of the piece was using the term sarcastically. Fria Tider is a conservative, alternative news source.
http://www.friatider.se/j-mf-rde-somalier-med-romer-d-ms
Compared Somalis with Roma - Convicted
A 61-year-old man in Gothenburg has been convicted of an opinion crime after criticizing Somalis on Facebook.
The two posts the man was convicted of were published as comments on links on Facebook in May and July 2017 respectively.
In both posts, he compared the African people to Somalis with Roma.
"Somalis are comparable to Europe's Roma: Criminals..dishonest..Lazy..disrespectful..no IQ, Damn slimebags !!!", Posted in May.
"Seriously speaking .... Somalis are Europe's response to the Roma ... dishonest, (have no) empathy, lazy, no IQ, damn slimebags! They have no damn business being here at all!" wrote the man in July.
The prosecutor felt that the 61-year-old in the posts was guilty of attacking a people's group by "expressing derogatory (statements) about Somalis in view of national origin."
The man acknowledged that he wrote the comments and was convicted on Friday for 60 daily fines of 200 kronor for the actual opinion crime.
In both posts, he compared the African people to Somalis with Roma.
"Somalis are comparable to Europe's Roma: Criminals..dishonest..Lazy..disrespectful..no IQ, Damn slimebags !!!", Posted in May.
"Seriously speaking .... Somalis are Europe's response to the Roma ... dishonest, (have no) empathy, lazy, no IQ, damn slimebags! They have no damn business being here at all!" wrote the man in July.
The prosecutor felt that the 61-year-old in the posts was guilty of attacking a people's group by "expressing derogatory (statements) about Somalis in view of national origin."
The man acknowledged that he wrote the comments and was convicted on Friday for 60 daily fines of 200 kronor for the actual opinion crime.
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