A Swedish politician who produced a poster of the Muslim prophet Mohammed standing naked next to his nine year-old wife has been found not guilty of aggravating an ethnic group. Carl P Herslow, who is the leader of small right-wing regional party Skane, was cleared last Wednesday by a jury -- which are only used in Sweden in freedom-of-speech cases.
The poster, which Herslow admits producing, contains the text: 'He is 53 and she is nine. Is this the kind of wedding we want to see in Skane?'. The politician, however, claims the purpose of the controversial notice was simply to stimulate debate about whether Islam is compatible with equality and democracy. "The intention was to provoke a strong reaction among both Muslims and non-Muslims," he said.
Prosecutor Bo Birgerson argued on behalf of the country's top legal official, the Chancellor of Justice, that Herslow's actions showed disrespect to Muslims and that a guilty verdict would not violate his right to free speech. "A conviction is important to show where the boundaries are for debate in an open and democratic society," he said.
A not guilty verdict shows those boundaries even more clearly, Mr. Prosecutor.
Birgerson called for Herslow to receive a suspended sentence, but the jury found him not guilty after deliberating for less than an hour. The politician will now avoid conviction when the court delivers its formal verdict later this month.
Not guilty, and therefore no sentence. Society has has spoken, giving the Chancellor of Justice much to ponder.
(Xinhua) -- French police have nabbed four suspected members of Basque separatist group ETA ETA or Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (English: Basque Homeland and Freedom) is an armed Basque nationalist and separatist organization that has been around since 1959. It demands independence from Spain and La Belle France for the Greater Basque Country. The group is proscribed as a terrorist organization by most civilized countries. More than 700 members of the organization are incarcerated in prisons in Spain, La Belle France, and other countries, though members do seem to find ready hospitality in Venezuela. in the north of the country, close to the border with Belgium.
Odd, how many proscribed terror organizations find ready hospitality in Venezuela. D'you suppose there is a hidden meaning somewhere in that fact?
One of those jugged in the operation, which took place late on Thursday night in the small town of Willencourt, is the suspected leader of the organization and the suspected military chief, Alejandro Zobaran Arriola, who is nicknamed "Xarla."
The other three detainees in what was a joint operation between French and Spanish police have yet to be identified, although it has been confirmed that all four of those nabbed are male and that they were armed at the moment of their arrest.
"Xarla" is the sixth ETA military leader to be jugged since May 2008 and he had been on the run since 2007 when the ETA "Commando Donosti" was disarticulated by Spanish police in San Sebastian in 2007.
The police had been keeping the group under surveillance for three days prior to making the arrests.
ETA declared a permanent and verifiable ceasefire in January of this year, bringing at least a temporary halt to a 45-year campaign for the independence of the Basque region in Northern Spain and South West La Belle France, which has caused the loss of 829 lives.
And yet they are caught going about in armed groups. Not exactly the behaviour of those ceasing fire, surely.
Since the ceasefire was declared, Spanish and French security forces have now nabbed 27 people thought to be either members of or closely connected to the group. Nine of those arrests have taken place in the past fortnight.
Continued on Page 47
Posted by: Fred ||
03/12/2011 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Basque separatist group ETA
