Swedish pensioner fined for stating that Somalis are lazy
By EMMA R.
VoiceOfEurope.com
21 February 2019
A 70-year-old man who recently was prosecuted for writing that Somalis are lazy and don’t work, has now been convicted of the crime in Sweden.
It is “derogatory to the group of Somalis’ reputation” according to the District Court.
The man, who lives in western Sweden, wrote in connection with a Facebook post that linked to an SVT article, which stated that only one out of five Somalis have a job, that “no Somali can work they are the laziest people in this world”.
The verdict came last week. The man was convicted of hate speech by a unanimous District Court, and ordered to pay 60 daily fines of SEK 120, totaling SEK 7200 (700 euro’s).
For a remark to be classed as hate speech, it must express misconduct of a group of people, and regarding this the District Court writes: “For a message to fall under the term ‘misconduct’, it is sufficient that a statement about, for example, a certain ethnic group is derogatory to the group’s reputation. Even statements that are ridiculing towards a particular group of people are almost always included in the provision.”
The District Court believes that the remark on laziness cannot be perceived in any other way than as “derogatory to the group of Somalis’ reputation. It does not express any factual criticism and the purpose of it does not seem to have been to contribute to a constructive debate.”
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