16 May 2007
An appeals court has acquitted the leader of the Norwegian neo-Nazi organization ‘Vigrid’ of charges of insulting Jews. The Norwegian newspaper ‘Aftenposten’ reports that Tore Tvedt was cleared by the Borgarting court of appeals despite having made numerous anti-Jewish statements in 2003 in an interview with ‘VG’, the largest newspaper in Norway. In the interview Tvedt, 64, had said "the Jews are the main enemy," that they "have killed our people" and "they are evil murderers." He had added, "They are not human, they are parasites that shall be rooted out." Tvedt was convicted by a lower court of insulting Jews and was sentenced to 45 days in prison and two years probation. The appeals court now ruled that the statements were not sufficiently coarse to fall under the term racism. "The ruling is important for freedom of speech in a democratic society and I note that with this the court has given expression free rein and reserved the use of punishment for those cases where violence or physical assault are threatened," Tvedt's defense lawyer John Christian Elden was quoted as saying by Aftenposten.