Prosecutor General’s Office in Turkish capital investigates incidents of Quran burning in Sweden and Denmark
The Prosecutor General’s Office in the Turkish capital has launched an investigation into the desecration of the Koran by far-right activists in Sweden and Denmark, the DHA news agency reported.
The investigation was opened against the leader of the Danish far-right party “Tough Course” Rasmus Paludan, who burned the Koran on January 21 near the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm, having previously obtained permission from the Swedish authorities to hold the action, and on January 27 he held an action of burning a Muslim holy book near the Turkish Embassy in Copenhagen and near a mosque in the Danish capital. A similar action was held in front of the consular section of the Russian Embassy in Copenhagen. The Russian diplomatic mission issued a condemnation of such actions.
The actions of Edwin Wagensveld, leader of the radical right movement Pegida, who on Monday staged an action in The Hague, tearing several pages from the Koran and then burning them, will also be investigated.
“In connection with the January 21 and 27 rallies and the actions of the Pegida leader… the General Prosecutor’s Office has opened an investigation into the case opened against the suspects … for public incitement of hatred and hostility and publicly insulting the religious values of a part of the population,” the agency reported.
According to the Turkish Penal Code, the crime of publicly insulting religious values can be punished with six months to a year in prison. Incitement of hatred towards a certain part of the population faces from one to three years’ imprisonment.
Ankara has previously called on the authorities of several European countries, which have not yet commented on this issue, to respond to actions that marginalize Muslims.