20.01.2012
As reported last week, five Muslim men had gone on trial at Derby Crown Court, as they were accused of having distributed leaflets calling for gay people to be executed. Handing out these leaflets was allegedly a breach of the new hate laws that came into force on March 2010. On Friday, three of the five men were indeed found guilty of stirring up hatred on the grounds of sexual orientation – in what the prosecutors called a “landmark case”, as it was the first of its kinds since the new legislation came into force. During the trial, the mean admitted to distributing the leaflets, but also said they were following what their religion taught them and did not intend to threaten anyone. The men will be sentenced on February 10th; they could a face a maximum sentence of up to seven years of imprisonment.
