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TURKEY

Denmark to deport four for attack on Turkish embassy

A Molotov cocktail attack on the Turkish Embassy in Copenhagen last year has resulted in deportation sentences for four convicted in connection with the crime.

Denmark to deport four for attack on Turkish embassy
File photo: Liselotte Sabroe/Ritzau Scanpix

The four men were convicted at Copenhagen City Court on Wednesday morning for attacking the Turkish Embassy with petrol bombs in March 2018.

The men, aged 19, 22, 23 and 24, were found guilty of having thrown several Molotov cocktails at the building in the Østerbro neighbourhood.

Three were given prison sentences of one year and nine months, while a one year, six month-long custodial sentence was given to the fourth.

All four will be deported from Denmark and given 12-year bans from entering the country.

Several people attending the trial broke into tears as the sentences were read out, Ritzau reports.

All four men are part of Copenhagen’s Kurdish community, the news agency writes.

The attack took place on March 19th last year. Charges were announced in November.

One of the men has previously said that he had planned to celebrate Kurdish New Year, but cancelled those plans after hearing of the operation by Turkish military forces in Afrin, a Kurdish canton in northwestern Syria.

He then travelled to a Kurdish meeting place in Valby near Copenhagen, where he met the other three men.

They were driving in Copenhagen when they came upon the idea to throw petrol bombs at the embassy. A total of seven Molotov cocktails were thrown.

READ ALSO: Turkish embassy in Copenhagen hit by Molotov cocktail attack

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ISLAM

Erdogan calls French separatism bill ‘guillotine’ of democracy

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday denounced a planned French law designed to counter "Islamist separatism" as a "guillotine" of democracy.

Erdogan calls French separatism bill 'guillotine' of democracy
Erdogan has already denounced the proposed measures as "anti-Muslim". Photo: Adem ALTAN/AFP

The draft legislation has been criticised both inside France and abroad for stigmatising Muslims and giving the state new powers to limit speech and religious groups.

“The adoption of this law, which is openly in contradiction of human rights, freedom of religion and European values, will be a guillotine blow inflicted on French democracy,” said Erdogan in a speech in Ankara.

The current version of the planned law would only serve the cause of extremism, putting NGOs under pressure and “forcing young people to choose between their beliefs and their education”, he added.

READ ALSO: What’s in France’s new law to crack down on Islamist extremism?

“We call on the French authorities, and first of all President (Emmanuel) Macron, to act sensibly,” he continued. “We expect a rapid withdrawal of this bill.”

Erdogan also said he was ready to work with France on security issues and integration, but relations between the two leaders have been strained for some time.

France’s government is in the process of passing new legislation to crack down on what it has termed “Islamist separatism”, which would give the state more power to vet and disband religious groups judged to be threats to the nation.

Erdogan has already denounced the proposed measures as “anti-Muslim”.

READ ALSO: Has Macron succeeded in creating an ‘Islam for France’?

Last October, Erdogan questioned Macron’s “mental health”, accusing him of waging a “campaign of hatred” against Islam, after the French president defended the right of cartoonists to caricature the prophet Mohammed.

The two countries are also at odds on a number of other issues, including Libya, Syria and the eastern Mediterranean.

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