Two of the four people convicted by a Swedish court for rioting on Easter after copies of the Islamic Qur’an were burned by anti-Islam activists will be deported.
The four men, aged between 20 and 30, were convicted for their actions during the Easter riots in the city of Örebro after being accused of violence toward police officers and disrupting the operations of the officers during the rioting in Sveaparken.
The four men were sentenced to prison sentences between four and five and a half years for sabotaging the actions of the police, with two of the men also scheduled to be deported from Sweden, broadcaster SVT reports.
“I think it’s a well-reasoned and accurate judgment. The district court has examined all the allegations that I had. It is the same assessment that I have made,” Chief Prosecutor Per-Erik Rinsell said.
“I think the district court has landed pretty well. I had an idea that it would be a slightly higher penalty value, but I think the district court has described well why it has landed where it has landed,” Rinsell added.
The Örebro District Court heard the case for three days and the prosecution presented video and photo evidence of the men’s participation in the riots. The men themselves admitted some of the facts of the case but denied they had sabotaged the police.
Torbjörn Marell, a lawyer for one of the men, said he would appeal the verdict and stated, “It’s a bit strange that two courts can come to such different conclusions. I think of the verdict in Solna District Court where a man was sentenced to 6 months in prison for violent rioting. My client is sentenced to 4.5 years for aggravated blue light sabotage. That’s a mile-wide difference.”
The Solna District Court convicted the first person in connection with the riots, a 34-year-old man said to be originally from Tajikistan, in May but he was only sentenced to six months for his participation as there was not sufficient proof he organised or led the rioting.
The Easter riots took place in several cities in Sweeden over a period of several days as Danish anti-Islam activist Rasmus Paludan and his group Stram Kurs (Hard Line) organised demonstrations burning copies of the Qur’an.
Paludan has since returned to Sweden to burn more copies of the Islamic holy book and has vowed to carry on more demonstrations across Sweden in July.