Denmark charged two people on Friday under its law prohibiting the desecration of the Koran, a first for the legislation adopted after a series of holy books of holy books which aroused the indignation of Muslims, the authorities said.
The two men, whose identity has not been revealed, are accused of “inappropriate treatment of a Koran” during a festival bringing together in June political, economic and social domains.
Neither the Copenhagen prosecution nor the local media described their alleged actions in detail.
The actions “took place publicly, were followed by a number of people and were also broadcast to a wider circle while being filmed and broadcast live on Facebook,” said the Lise-Lotte Nilas prosecutor in a press release.
The new legislation was adopted on December 7, 2023 and entered into force a few days later, after a series of profanations of the sacred book of Islam in Denmark and neighboring Sweden aroused indignation in Muslim countries.
Concretely, it is now forbidden to burn, tear or desecate publicly sacred texts in any other way or in videos intended to be widely disseminated.
Those who break the law risk a fine or up to two years in prison. According to the Danish daily Politiken, the police were investigating eight violations of the law on January 22.
