SWEDEN/ DENMARK
Paludan suspended from the internet and threatened with prison
Published 2024-01-18

The Danish-Swedish politician Rasmus Paludan had his website "Voice of Freedom" suspended on Wednesday by order of the Danish police. He tells this in an email to Samnytt.

The reason is that Paludan published an anonymized lawsuit regarding the so-called Corsair man - Danish Philip Westh - who is charged with, among other things, murder, kidnapping and rape where the victims are three young girls.

Samnytt wrote about the 33-year-old serial sex offender in April last year in connection with his kidnapping of a 13-year-old girl. Since then, he has been linked to further sexual assaults; rape and murder of 17-year-old Emilie Meng in 2016 and an attempted kidnapping against a 15-year-old girl in 2022.

The case has shocked all of Denmark, and Danish media have been ordered to keep the identity of the accused a secret. Westh's identity nevertheless became known early on when his relatives chose to make it public.

READ MORE: Danish Filippa, 13, was kidnapped and raped

"The police don't read the penal code very well"
When Paludan published the indictment, he anonymized everyone involved. Despite this, the Danish police considered that he acted criminally by "unwarrantedly disseminating information or images concerning another's private circumstances".

The police in South Zealand and Lolland-Falster, which are investigating the case of the 33-year-old sex offender, contacted the web hosting company Paludan uses and ordered that Frihedens stemme be closed. During Thursday, however, the site is up and running again since the article in question has been deleted.

Paludan says in a comment that "the police do not read the penal code very well", and believes that the publication of a general indictment cannot be considered "information concerning someone else's private circumstances". The legal text the Danish police refer to also covers privacy-infringing images, but Paludan has not published any images.

Rasmus Paludan has been formally served with suspicion of crime and risks if he is sentenced to a fine or up to six months in prison for his allegedly illegal article.