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CRIMINAL

Man fined for ‘mosque journalist’ death threat

Gävle district court convicted a 41-year-old man of unlawful threats after he told a Swedish journalist he deserved a "terrible death" for writing an article about a mosque in Stockholm.

The man was found guilty of threatening the life of an Aftonbladet journalist and was fined 25,000 kronor ($3,780).

“You’re a sitting duck. If you really live in that little cottage (where the journalist was registered as living) then it is amazing that no one has ended your wicked life already,” the man wrote in an email sent to the reporter in September 2012.

Aftonbladet reported on Wednesday that the article prompting the emailer’s anger was about the call to prayer at a mosque in Botkyrka.

The man who penned the furious email continued by writing that his “main concern in the future, aside from the survival of my relatives, is that people like you meet a terrible death”.

The journalist handed over the matter to the newspaper’s IT department, which was able to trace the sender’s IP address, despite attempts to remain anonymous, and handed the information over to the police.

The man was subsequently taken in for questioning and confessed to having sent the threatening email. The prosecutor had pushed for a probationary sentence but the court ruled that a fine was sufficient.

TT/The Local/pvs Follow The Local on Twitter

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