Rasmus Paludan, the leader of the Stram Kurs (Hard Line) party in both Denmark and Sweden, caused a big uproar last month by traveling to Sweden and burning Korans — or trying to; on a number of occasions the culture-enriching violence ahead of his scheduled appearances became so intense that he was unable to stage his events (see the archives for reports on various incidents).

The two articles below from Nyheter Idag provide a follow-up to those earlier posts. Many thanks to Gary Fouse for the translations.

The first article reports on a court decision concerning the detention of Mr. Paludan by the police during the events of Easter Week. I hadn’t realized that he had been detained — that wasn’t widely reported at the time outside of Sweden, as far as I know:

Court: Police who arrested Paludan erred

Linköping — On Maundy Thursday (April 14), the Danish-Swedish politician Rasmus Paludan was detained by police in Linköping. This occurred after a violent riot broke out in the neighborhood of Skäggetorp. Now the administrative court in Linköping has ruled on the police actions and maintains that the arrest of Paludan was wrong. This is reported by Dagens Nyheter, among others.

The riot in Skäggetorp took place after Rasmus Paludan was granted permission to hold a demonstration in the neighborhood, where he planned, among other things, to burn a Koran.

However, Paludan never had time to hold the public gathering before the chaotic scenes broke out where, among other things, rocks were thrown at police, who later withdrew from the scene. Instead, he found himself in a car in a parking lot two kilometers away in the company of police officers who thought that he should not go to Skäggetorp.

The arrest was made at 4:52pm on the grounds that Paludan had caused the riot. The decision came from a commander and caused surprise within the police.

“It was a very far-fetched interpretation of the law. Paludan wasn’t even at the scene. He should file a police report on this,” a policeman told DN [Dagens Nyheter].

Paludan was held at the police station for just over an hour and a half, and because of this, he canceled the planned and authorized gathering in Navestad in Norrköping. But riots also broke out there, even though Paludan wasn’t at the scene.

Offered no resistance

According to the written police report, Paludan offered no resistance at the time of his arrest. Instead, afterwards he appealed the police decision at the administrative court in Linköping, which has now announced that the police action was wrong.

According to the administrative court, police may not detain people in order to control the behavior of others. In addition, it was stated that Paludan wasn’t even in the vicinity of Skäggetorp when the riot broke out.

Accordingly, the police actions are rejected.

“Even if a violent riot can be connected to a public gathering, a temporary custody presupposes that it is an individual’s behavior or actions that lead to disruption or a direct danger to public order,” the court writes, according to TT [Sweden’s national news bureau].

Police authorities have chosen not to comment about the court.

The second article reports on the first conviction of a culture-enricher for violent acts during the riots in Rinkeby after Rasmus Paludan burned a Koran there on Good Friday (see reports on the riots in Rinkeby in the comments section of this post):

Alien sentenced for Koran riot — Gets six months year in prison

Stockholm: A 34-year-old man, a citizen of Tajikistan, has been sentenced by the Solna District Court to six months in prison for a violent riot and attempted violence against a policeman during the Koran riot in Rinkeby on Easter weekend.

According to the district court’s verdict, the man threw stones at police and gave stones to other persons to throw at police and police cars.

According to the district court, it is beyond a reasonable doubt that the man took part in the riot as a perpetrator, but that he was the instigator or leader of the gathering could not be proven.

The man was also convicted of attempted violence against a police officer, since he threw a stone at a police officer who, however, was able to duck.

One of the affected police officers had claimed damages of 10,000 kronor for injury. However, that was rejected by the district court, which justified the rejection on the grounds that a police officer in riot gear should expect to be subjected to a certain amount of violence.

The perpetrator had an earlier deportation order against him and was being sought for arrest in order to be deported from the country.

The sentence against the man is the first since the Easter weekend Koran riots.

For previous posts about Rasmus Paludan and the burning of Korans, see the Rasmus Paludan Archives.