Boy sentenced for racist jokes on the net

[color="Blue"][Local paper]

Jönköping County

One boy wrote a post about Somalis on Facebook. Now, he is sentenced to pay a fine of Jönköping district court for incitement to racial hatred.

- It was silly in retrospect, when I think about it, says the boy.

The boy, who is in her teens, was charged with hate speech and on Wednesday took the trial room.

It was the beginning of the year as the boy copied a formula from a site on the internet and then pasted in a post on his Facebook page so others could see it.

The post was to Somalis attracts flies, which would make it easy to kill many birds at once.

The boy himself deny the charges but acknowledges that the phrase existed on his Facebook page.
"Passed the border"

During the trial, he responded to questions from the Court about why he expressed himself as he did.

- I do not really know. It was stupid in retrospect, when I think about it. I did not mean to offend anyone, says the boy.

When asked why he deny the charges, he replies:

- I do not think it is a crime to write it.

While he believes in retrospect that the phrase "is childish."

Prosecutor Sebastian Nilhammer mean that the boy crossed the boundary of what is considered a crime and that he expressed "contempt against Somalis" and that phrase is "ridicule".

- He must have realized the significance of what has been written, said Nilhammer.
Maliciously or not?

The boy's defense attorney Maria Sturesson mean that the boy should not be sentenced for a crime, because he had no intent with the formulation.

- It is obvious that he did not understand what he has done, she says.

- As a defender, I can not say that this is something that we should not care about. But somewhere, the right to draw a line on what to punish and not to punish. We have to see this from the boy's context.

After the district court's deliberations boy was sentenced to pay fines of a total of 2 000 for incitement to racial hatred, petty offenses.

The district court believes that the boy's behavior meets the requirements of the Act for a person to be convicted of the offense (see box). The formulation has expressed contempt for Somalis and then spread on Facebook.

The big question was whether the boy had the intention or not. The district court believes that the boy, given the wording still should have understood that he expressed contempt for a group of people and that he therefore acted intentionally.

One juror, however, dissented, argued that the statement should be interpreted as a joke that was not written intentionally.

FACTS:

Hate speech
The crime of incitement to racial hatred means any publicly disseminate statements which threatens or expresses contempt against one or more designated ethnic groups. It can be about race, color, ethnic or national origin, religious belief or sexual orientation.
The offense is committed with intent, and the statement will be disseminated beyond the purely private sphere.
Penalties range from imprisonment for up to four years for felony, to a fine if the offense is considered minor.

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