A Swedish court has sentenced a far-right activist to four months in jail for inciting hatred against Muslims at two protests in 2022.

Rasmus Paludan sparked protests around the world when he staged demonstrations against Islam in Malmo that saw him burn a copy of the Quran.

The court said he made offensive remarks directed at Muslims, Arabs and Africans at these rallies.

"It is permissible to publicly criticize, for example, Islam and even Muslims, but the contempt for a group of people must clearly not exceed the limits of a relevant and responsible discourse," judge Nicklas Soderberg said in a statement on Tuesday.

"In these cases, there was no such discourse. Instead, the statements were merely intended to defame and insult Muslims," he said.

The protests were separate to another incident in Sweden where an Iraqi Christian refugee also burned a Quran in Stockholm.

Rasmus Paludan to appeal verdict

Paludan, who is a lawyer by profession, said he wasn't surprised by the verdict on Tuesday.

"It was expected. We will appeal," the Swedish newspaper Expressen cited him as saying.

The far-right agitator, who is a citizen of both Sweden and Denmark, was convicted on similar charges in Denmark in 2020. He had pleaded not guilty and vowed to appeal that verdict as well.

The incident strained relations between Sweden and Turkey in particular, with Turkey threatening for months to scupper the Scandinavian country's bid to join NATO, until it received promises of the sale of new US military jets and promises from Sweden to do more to crack down on Kurdish groups like the PKK.

zc/msh (AFP, Reuters, AP)