Rasmus Paludan Bunged Into Chokey

The Danish “Islamophobe” Rasmus Paludan is well-known to regular readers of this site, thanks to the dozens of videos of his street demonstrations that Vlad Tepes has uploaded over the past four or five years. Vlad has lost a lot of channels during that time, but he recently re-uploaded last September’s interview with Mr. Paludan in Quebec. This time it’s on the 3Speak platform (in five parts: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5), so it’s less likely to disappear from the web.

Denmark used to be bastion of free speech. Thirteen years ago, when I first started paying attention to Danish politics, there was a greater degree of free speech in Denmark than anywhere else in Western Europe. And maybe there still is — but in the years since then, free speech in Western Europe has all but disappeared.

Rasmus Paludan was recently convicted of “racism” in a Danish court, and will spend a month in jail if his planned appeal is unsuccessful. Below are two articles about the verdict, first from Reuters:

Danish far-right party leader sentenced to jail on racism and defamation

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) — The leader of Danish far-right party Stram Kurs, lawyer Rasmus Paludan, was disbarred from the legal profession and sentenced to three months in jail on Thursday after being found guilty of racism.

Stram Kurs (Hard Line) was close to getting into parliament in the last election in Denmark with a policy based on banning Islam and deporting hundreds of thousands of Muslims.

Paludan first came to public attention in 2017 when he started making anti-Muslim Youtube videos. His stunts have included publicly burning the Koran, sometimes wrapped in bacon, in what he said was a tribute to free speech.

Paludan was sentenced to 14 days of conditional imprisonment in 2019 for racist speech. He will now face one month of imprisonment with two additional months of suspended sentence after being found guilty of 14 different accounts of racism, defamation and hazardous driving.

Additionally, as part of his sentence, Paludan was disbarred for three years, had his driver’s licence suspended for one year and was fined around 40,000 Danish crowns ($6,012.23), the district court said in a statement.

Paludan denied all charges.

The second report is from the BBC:

Danish Far-Right Leader Paludan Jailed for Racism

Rasmus Paludan, head of Denmark’s far-right Stram Kurs (Hard Line) party, has been given a month in jail for a string of offences including racism.

He was convicted of posting anti-Islam videos on his party’s social media channels.

Paludan was given a suspended jail term for racism in 2019 and the court heard that influenced the latest verdict.

He will appeal against his sentence, which includes a two-month suspended jail term.

He faced 14 charges, including racism, defamation and dangerous driving.

Paludan, 38, was disbarred for three years as a criminal lawyer and banned from driving for a year.

Stram Kurs won 1.8% of the vote in national elections in 2019, falling just short of the 2% threshold needed to enter parliament.

Hat tips: For the BBC article, Fjordman; for the Reuters article, Matt Bracken.

4 thoughts on “Rasmus Paludan Bunged Into Chokey

  1. Sounds like Denmark now has one person who would qualify as a refugee in a decent country.

    At a practical level (as opposed to a theoretical legal one), free speech these days seems to exist in Eastern Europe, the USA (good luck remaining employed, but at least you won’t go to jail), Japan and Israel to a significant extent, and where else?

    Certainly not much in Canada, anyway.

  2. “Additionally, as part of his sentence, Paludan was disbarred for three years, had his driver’s licence suspended for one year”

    So, if you are deemed a racist you are denied the possibility to practice your profession and to drive.
    How are those things relevant for the crime of “racism”? Can’t an unemployed person that doesn’t drive be racist? Yes, but those who want to keep their jobs will not engage into wrong think.

    This is ridiculous.

  3. They basically lawfared the guy to starve without a paycheck. They can now effectively silence you for speaking truth to power. Well to that I say, warfare always beats lawfare.

  4. We ( of Western Civilization Persuasion ) are in a fight back or die situation. The forces of evil are arrayed against the rightous. Freedom, property rights, personal safety, religion are in dangerous peril.

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