Sweden charges two men over 2023 Quran burnings
Al Jazeera
Prosecutors say the men ‘treated the Quran in a manner intended to express contempt for Muslims because of their faith’.
Two men in Sweden will go on trial after burning the Quran several times during protests last year, which sparked widespread outrage in Muslim countries.
Swedish prosecutors said on Wednesday that Salwan Momika and Salwan Najem committed “offences of agitation against an ethnic or national group” four separate times.
The charges said the two desecrated the Quran, including burning it, while making derogatory remarks about Muslims, in one case outside a mosque in the capital, Stockholm.
The events in the summer of 2023 angered Muslim leaders, prompted Sweden to tighten security and strained its relations with countries in the Middle East.
“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.
