Netherlands / Supreme Court / Case no. 11/00864 ECLI:NL:HR:2012:BW9189

Country

Netherlands

Title

Netherlands / Supreme Court / Case no. 11/00864

ECLI:NL:HR:2012:BW9189

View full Case

Year

2012

Decision/ruling/judgment date

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Incident(s) concerned/related

Other forms of hate speech

Related Bias motivation

Race/Ethnicity
Religion

Groups affected

Muslims
Migrants

Court/Body type

National Court

Court/Body

Supreme Court (Hoge Raad)

Key facts of the case

In this case, the Supreme Court confirmed the judgement of the Court of Appeal convicting a man who put texts comparing Muslims and people of Turkish descent with monkeys, cockroaches, rats and rapists on his own website. The Court of Appeal convicted the accused under Article 137c of the Dutch criminal code which criminalizes group insult. Any claim by the owners that these texts were permissible because of their humourist character were rejected. The Supreme Court iclarified that the statements of the accused fall under Article 137c of the Dutch criminal code.

Main reasoning/argumentation

The Supreme Court confirms the reasoning of the Court of Appeal that the statements of the accused were insulting to Muslims and people of Turkish origin. The statements were gratuitously offensive. The Court considered the possibility of whether the statements made by the accused contributed to the public debate or were an expression of an artistic or humourist endeavor. Ultimately, the Court rejected this possibility.

Is the case related to the application of the Framework Decision on Racism and Xenophobia, the Racial Equality Directive?

Key issues (concepts, interpretations) clarified by the case

An appeal to artistic expression (satire) does not preclude the criminality of statements which are obviously insulting to people because of their religion or race.

Results (sanctions, outcome) and key consequences or implications of the case

The Supreme Court confirms the fine the accused received from the Court of Appeal: a fine of 1000 Euro of which 500 Euro were conditional.

Key quotation in original language and its unofficial translation into English with reference details

"Het hof is van oordeel dat de tenlastegelegde uitlatingen op zichzelf beschouwd al beledigend zijn voor moslims en mensen van Turkse afkomst nu zij daarin worden vergeleken met berberapen respectievelijk kakkerlakken, ratten en verkrachters. Maar ook in de context van de artikelen waarin de desbetreffende uitlatingen zijn opgenomen, zijn die uitlatingen onmiskenbaar beledigend voor groepen personen wegens hun ras en/of godsdienst. Hoewel in die artikelen hier en daar wordt gesproken van radicalen, terroristen, racisten en extremisten, zijn het overduidelijk steeds moslims (en Turken) die als collectief worden aangesproken, getuige bijvoorbeeld de aanduiding van het aantal moslims in Nederland (een miljoen). "

"The court is of the opinion that the alleged statements on themselves are already offensive to Muslims and people of Turkish origin as they are compared monkeys and cockroaches, rats and rapists respectively. But in the context of the articles in which these statement are incorporated, these statements are undeniably offensive to groups of people because of their race and / or religion. Although these articles include some offensive statements about radicals, terrorists, racists and extremists, it is obvious that most statements address Muslims (and Turks), witness, the indication of the number of Muslims in the Netherlands (one million)."

DISCLAIMERThe information presented here is collected under contract by the FRA's research network FRANET. The information and views contained do not necessarily reflect the views or the official position of the FRA.