The Eastern High Court today fined Lars Hedegaard, the president of the Free Press Society, 5,000 kroner for making racially offensive comments in December 2009.
“Girls in Muslim families are raped by their uncles, their cousins, or their fathers,” and “When a Muslim man rapes a woman, it is in his right to do so,” were among the comments Hedegaard made during a 35-minute interview at a Christmas party with the author of the blog snaphanen.dk, who subsequently published the comments on the blog.
Today’s decision overturns a decision in January by the Frederiksberg District Court, which stated that while it found Hedegaard’s comments to be insulting, Hedegaard did not know that his controversial comments would be made public.
Last week Hedegaard published a book titled “Muhammeds Piger” (Mohammed’s Girls), in which he writes about issues such as discrimination in Islam and that the belief in predestination.
“Everyone is subject to Allah’s will, but he treats them differently – without stating any other criteria for the discrimination other than his own will,” the book reads.
Women are the main focus of the book, in which the author also expresses his joy over the victory of free speech, referring to the district court’s acquittal in January.
