Carsten Kofoed: Martyr for freedom of expression

Martyr for freedom of expression

By Carsten Kofoed, Free Iraq Blog of Denmark, April 11, 2007

Danish-Moroccan Said Mansour has been sentenced to three and a half years imprisonment for encouraging terrorism according to Article 114 of the Danish Penal Code, the so-called Terror Act. His “crime” is possession/distribution of different material on the legitimate armed resistance struggle against the Western occupation forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The sentence against Mansour is political and a deadly attack on freedom of expression and real political opposition in Denmark. From now on, one can be imprisoned for just publishing views that are not shared by those in power. Opponents of the aggressive foreign policy of Denmark, including its illegal wars and occupations, are to be terrorized into silence.

However, the real terrorists are those who have the blood of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and Afghans on their hands, that is, Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller and the other war criminals in the national parliament, not a so-called Muslim fundamentalist who has been demonized by the mass media and has not done anything else than merely using his freedom of expression which is guaranteed in the Danish Constitution.

Fogh Rasmussen is the mass murderer and should have been put behind bars a long time ago. Mansour, however, has become a martyr for freedom of expression.

Sent as a comment (150 words maximum) to the Danish press on April 11, 2007. Published in the three Danish dailies MetroXpress (April 12, 2007), Ekstra Bladet (April 13, 2007) and B.T. (April 15, 2007).