Swedish anti-Islam campaigner sentenced over Koran burnings days after co-defendant shot dead
Salwan Najem, a 50-year-old Swedish citizen, has been handed a suspended sentence after he staged public burnings of the Koran which led to unrest and caused strain between Muslim countries and Sweden.
Monday 3 February 2025 19:15, UK
A man who staged public burnings of the Koran in Sweden has been found guilty of hate crimes, five days after his co-defendant was shot dead.
Salwan Najem, a 50-year-old Swedish citizen, was given a suspended sentence and fined 4,000 crowns (£289) over the Koran burnings and derogatory comments he made about Muslims in the 2023 incidents.
His actions sparked unrest and anger towards Sweden in Muslim countries.
His fellow campaigner, Iraqi refugee Salwan Momika, 38, was shot dead last week on the day he had been due to receive his verdict in a parallel case.
Five people were detained over the killing but later released.
Swedish police said on the day after the shooting on 29 January that Momika was shot dead in a house in Sodertalje, a town near Stockholm. The case against Momika was subsequently dismissed.
Sweden's prime minister expressed concern the shooting may be linked to a foreign power.
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Burning the Koran is seen by Muslims as a blasphemous act because they consider it the literal word of God.
The Stockholm district court said Sweden had extensive free speech rights and that followers of a religion must accept that they would sometimes feel offended, but that Najem and Momika had "by a wide margin" overstepped the mark for reasonable and factual religious criticism.
The court said the Koran did not have any special protection just because it was a holy scripture for Muslims and that there could be cases where burning was not considered a hate crime.
Najem was found guilty of hate crimes for "having expressed contempt for the Muslim ethnic group because of their religious beliefs on four occasions", the court said.
Najem's lawyer has said he would be appealing against the verdict.