In which country, [which has a longstanding tradition of guaranteeing freedom of conscience and other fundamental rights], was a Pastor sent to prison for a sermon he gave?

Sweden’s Kalmar District Court sentenced Pastor Ake Green to prison for preaching a sermon he made.

You got it Sailracer ,Thanx The world’s eyes are on Sweden .
Advocates International is a global network linking 30,000 lawyers, judges and national leaders committed to human rights and religious freedom in over 120 nations.
For the first time in world history, a pastor has been sentenced to prison for preaching a sermon on sexual morality as he understands the biblical position.
( I thought Fred would get this but he was busy watching Mr Norman)

quote:

Originally posted by Mozart:

( I thought Fred would get it but he was busy watching Mr Norman)

(True.He finished third, by the way.The winner was Padraig Harrington, again)

This is old news. The Pastor was acquitted by the appellate court. The prosecutor appealed that decision but the acquittal was upheld by the Swedish supreme court. That was ages ago.[ Supreme court ruling was on November 29th, 2005 , in fact]

Thanx for the reply Fred , it means that the Pastor is still in jail? Any updates?

No, he's not in jail. He was acquitted, found not guilty ,on appeal back in 2005. Not sure he ever was in jail or would have been. One report said it was a suspended sentence [= sentence is suspended for, say, two years. It's not served unless the offender reoffends in the two years after the original conviction, in which case it is served in addition to the sentence for the later offence]

In any case, this man would surely be given bail pending appeal even if the sentence wasn't suspended.The sentence is so short (one month) he'd have served it by the time the appeal was heard if he didn't have bail pending appeal. That would be a nonsense

Thank you Fred. It was a nonsense, I'am surprised it got that far. ( You edited your answer up there, now my reply looks "a little off".)

quote:

Originally posted by Mozart:
Thank you Fred. It was a nonsense, I'am surprised it got that far. ( You edited your answer up there, now my reply looks "a little off".)

(Must stop doing that ! )

We (in Britain)have jailed at least one cleric because of his sermons. He was found guilty of inciting race hatred and inciting murder, inter alia, on the strength of what he was telling the faithful at his mosque in North London.He got seven years.

Haven't jailed any Christian clergy of late.Most of ours are Anglicans: they never say anything controversial If they did, nobody would be there to listen !

The Swedish case only got to their supreme court because it raised a legal question on the proper interpretation of their anti-discrimination law, a question which the prosecution wanted answered. That kind of question could make it to our Judicial Committee of the House of Lords or the United States' Supreme Court too.Here it would get to the top court because 'it raised a question of law of general public importance'. The House of Lords would take the opportunity of giving a full and wide ruling on the principles to be applied. The Court of Appeal would only rule on the application of the law to the facts as found in the particular case; anything else, of wider application, would be treated as obiter dicta, opinion of persuasive but not binding effect.