Hussain v. The Norwegian Prosecution Authority
Case Law- Country
- Country Location
Latitude: 60.64267180066555
Longitude: 8.732768183649624
- Country Location (linked Case Law)
- Norway
- Decision Date
- Jun 22, 2015
- Case Status
- Closed
- Case Outcome (Procedural)
- Affirmed Lower Court
- Case Outcome (Disposition)
- Judgment in Favor of Defendant/ Acquittal
- Keywords
- Anti-Semitism
- Extremist Speech
- Gender
- LGBTQI
- Media/Press
- National Security
- Sexuality
- Terrorism
- Judicial Body
- Appellate Court
- Case Number
- 14-0499903AST-BORG/01; 14-174730AST-BORG/01
- Case Summary
Norwegian national Arslan Ubaydullah Maroof Hussain was a spokesperson for the Profetens Ummah, an Islamist extremist group based in Norway. After making a series of public statements on social media from 2012 to 2013, Hussain was arrested and faced several criminal charges under the Norwegian Penal Code for: (1) making threats during a criminal proceeding; (2) making threatening, discriminatory or hateful expressions against Norwegian Jews; (3) publicly supporting the stoning of a lesbian woman of Muslim faith; (4) praising terrorist acts; and (5) threatening two Norwegian journalists who had covered the activities of Profetens Ummah group. In 2014, the Oslo Magistrate’s Court acquitted Hussain of the charges brought under §§ 135(a) and 147(c), respectively, for making a discriminatory or hateful expression against the lesbian victim of assault and his public admiration of terrorist attacks. On all other charges, the court sentenced Hussain to 120 days in prison. On appeal, the Borgarting Court of Appeals upheld the acquittal verdicts, in part due to lack of unanimity among the justices. Columbia Global Freedom of Expression notes that some of the information contained in this report was derived from secondary sources.
- Case Significance
The decision establishes a binding or persuasive precedent within its jurisdiction.
- Source URL
- Columbia Global Freedom of Expression