A Swedish judge has upheld a six-month jail sentence for an Arab radio broadcaster in Sweden who was convicted of broadcasting anti-Semitic programs.
The Court of Appeals last week turned down the appeal of Ahmed Rami, director of Radio Islam, according to a spokeswoman at the Swedish Embassy in Washington.
Rami said he would appeal to the Supreme Court, said Daina Zaidi, second secretary at the embassy.
Making statements derogatory to ethnic groups carries a maximum sentence of two years.
The Swedish attorney general filed charges in March 1989 against Radio Islam for stirring up anti-Semitic feelings. Among the slurs the station broadcast were, “Jews provoke racism and hatred” and “Jew-Zionists control the media all over the world.”
The move against Radio Islam and station director Rami were precipitated by complaints from the Swedish Committee Against Anti-Semitism, a non-sectarian body that began monitoring Radio Islam’s broadcasts in 1987 and complained to authorities.
Initially, the Swedish Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs said the broadcasts “could not be regarded as incitement to racial hatred.”
But action against Radio Islam was stepped up following intervention by the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
