Tuesday, May 13, 2008

ECHR: saying that earthquake is caused by wrath of god is not hate speech

The European Court of Human Rights held that a criminal conviction for saying that the Marmara earthquake, which killed some 20,000 people in 1999, was divine punishment for the behaviour of Turkey's military and generally for people’s ingratitude towards God, their sinful ways and their failure to praise God, violated the applicant's right to freedom of expression. In Kutlular v. Turkey (application no. 73715/01), the Court said that such speech, though offensive to non-believers, was not capable of stirring hatred against non-believers.

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