Mathias Wåg is sentenced for defamation

Published 22 November 2024 at 13.12

Law & Right. The Svea Court of Appeal convicts the far-left AFA founder and Aftonbladet writer Mathias Wåg of defamation after he singled out a man as a “Nazi” and “murderer”. This means that the Court of Appeal is tearing up the Stockholm district court's acquittal from last summer.

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According to the Court of Appeal, it was defamation when Mathias Wåg singled out the man as a “murderer” , but not when he described the man as a “Nazi with connections to Nazi organizations”.

To be singled out as a Nazi in this way is certainly defamatory, according to the court. At the same time, the court points out that there is a public interest in knowing connections to Nazism, especially since the designated man worked as a writer for a “right-wing extreme newspaper” (the magazine Nya tider).

The Court of Appeal emphasizes that the man, despite he wrote under a pseudonym, must accept a tougher scrutiny because he is an active actor on the public stage.

In contrast, the Court of Appeal therefore considers that Wåg's claim that the man – who has been convicted of murder a long time ago – is a “murderer” was criminal. This goes against the district court's previous assessment, which acquitted Wåg on this point as well.

Mathias Wåg is sentenced to pay 5,000 kroner in damages to the man, who must pay his own legal costs.