Denmark / The Court of the Faroe Islands

Country

Denmark

Title

Denmark / The Court of the Faroe Islands

View full Case

Year

2019

Decision/ruling/judgment date

Friday, December 06, 2019

Incident(s) concerned/related

Other forms of hate speech

Related Bias motivation

Religion

Groups affected

Muslims

Court/Body type

National Court

Court/Body

National Court/ The Court of the Faroe Islands (Retten på Færøerne)

Key facts of the case

The case concerns hate speech. The defendant was indicted for having made the following statements at a public café in the Faroe Islands: "I hate all Muslims, you are shitty people, who only want to exploit Denmark, you should all be thrown out of the country, Muslims are responsible for all crime in Denmark and Sweden", "I kill all Muslims, I beat you to death, Muslims should be exterminated", "I hate Muslims and if you say something I will smash you", "You are Muslims and you can go to hell once we kill you, then there are no Muslims left", "You are terrorists" and "You bomb and you kill and want to take over the whole world".

Main reasoning/argumentation

The court found the defendant guilty of violating § 266 b, section 1 in the criminal code, as the defendant made public statements in which Muslims as a group were threatened, mocked and degraded.

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

No key issues can be drawn on the basis of this particular case.

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

10 daily penalties of 300 DKK. The court found the defendant guilty of violating § 266 b, section 1.

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

"Vidner har forklaret, at tiltalte fremsatte de i anklageskriftet nævnte udtalelser eller udtalelser med tilsvarende indhold. Ved udtalelserne blev muslimer som en gruppe truet, hånet og nedværdiget. Udtalelserne blev fremsat i en offentligt tilgængelig restaurant, hvor der var flere tilfældige udenforstående til stede, der overhørte udtalelserne, hvilket må have stået tiltalte klart, når henses til, at han var højrøstet, og at der var tale om et relativt lille lokale. Det er derfor bevist, at tiltalte er skyldig i overensstemmelse med tiltalen."

"Witnesses have testified that the defendant made the statements mentioned in the indictment or statements with similar content. In the statements, Muslims as a group were threatened, taunted and degraded. The statements were made in a public restaurant, in which several uninvolved people were present and overheard the statements, which must have been clear to the defendant, given that he was loud and that it was a relatively small room. The defendant is therefore proven guilty in accordance with the indictment."

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.