Swedish police said Thursday they had appealed a court ruling that overturned their decision to ban two rallies where protesters planned to burn copies in the Koran.
The burning of a Koran outside the Turkish embassy in Stockholm in January sparked anger in the Muslim world, leading to weeks of protests and calls for a boycott of Swedish products and helping to block Sweden’s bid for NATO membership.
Stockholm police refused to allow two similar demonstrations planned for February, citing security concerns. They did not take place.
However, in a ruling on Tuesday, the Stockholm Administrative Court overturned that decision, saying the security risks cited were not sufficient to limit the right to demonstrate.
“The police authorities did not sufficiently substantiate their decisions,” said Judge Eva-Lotta Hedin.
Swedish police had allowed the demonstration organised in January by Rasmus Paludan, a Swedish-Danish activist previously convicted of racist slurs.
Paludan also sparked riots in Sweden last year when he travelled around the country and publicly burned copies of the Quran.
The destruction of the Quran in January hurt Sweden’s relations with Turkey, which did not like the fact that the police had allowed the demonstration.
Ankara is blocking Sweden’s application to join NATO, which must be approved unanimously by the alliance’s members, because of what it sees as Stockholm’s failure to crack down on Kurdish groups based in Sweden, which it regards as “terrorists”.
“It is clear that those who caused such shame in front of our country’s embassy can no longer expect any kind of benevolence from us regarding their application for NATO membership,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in January.
Swedish police said the January protest had made Sweden “a higher priority target for attacks.”
Swedish politicians had criticised the destruction of the Koran, but also strongly defended freedom of expression in the country.
