Sweden charges Quran desecrators with hate crime

STOCKHOLM: Swedish prosecutors on Wednesday charged two men with inciting ethnic hatred over several protests involving the burning of Holy Qurans in 2023, which sparked widespread outrage in Muslim countries.

Salwan Momika, a Christian Iraqi who burned Qurans at a slew of protests, and co-protester Salwan Najem were charged with “agitation against an ethnic group” on four occasions in the summer of 2023.

“Both men are prosecuted for having on these four occasions made statements and treated the Quran in a manner intended to express contempt for Muslims because of their faith,” senior prosecutor Anna Hankkio said in a statement.

According to the charge sheet, the duo desecrated the Quran, including burning it, while making derogatory remarks about Muslims -- in one case outside a Stockholm mosque. “In my opinion, the men´s statements and actions fall under the provisions on agitation against an ethnic or national group and it is important that this matter is tried in court,” the prosecutor added. Relations between Sweden and several Middle Eastern countries were strained by the pair´s protests.

Iraqi protesters stormed the Swedish embassy in Baghdad twice in July 2023, starting fires within the compound on the second occasion. In August last year, Sweden´s intelligence service Sapo raised its threat level to four on a scale of five after the Koran burnings had made the country a “prioritised target”.