PROTESTS GREET SENTENCE FOR BUSH HATE MAIL
Posted: Fri Nov 21, 2003 5:19 pm
Protests Greet Sentence for Bush Hate Mail
LJUBLJANA (Reuters) - Slovenian human rights activists on Friday condemned a court's decision to sentence a man for "terrorist" crimes for sending hate e-mail to President Bush.
Tomi Sluga, 29, told the local court in the northeastern town of Murska Sobota he was drunk and only joking when he sent an e-mail to the White House web before a June 2001 Bush visit to the small Alpine state.
"President, save the Earth, you ass, you will be killed in Ljubljana. Welcome!" the email read.
The court found Sluga guilty of "endangering a protected person" and gave him a two-year suspended sentence on Monday, the first conviction under Slovenia's new anti-terrorism laws.
Protesters from several rights group demonstrated outside the supreme court in Ljuljana, demanding Sluga's case be reconsidered.
"It is an exaggeration that has nothing to do with security," Gorazd Kovacic of the local Mirovni Institut (Peace Institute) told Reuters.
"We wanted to protest against the court's senseless decision to sentence a person for terrorism just for sending an e-mail," said Marta Gregorcic, a prominent rights activist who was among the three dozen demonstrators.
Slovenia broke away from Yugoslavia in 1991 and is due to join the European Union in May.
LJUBLJANA (Reuters) - Slovenian human rights activists on Friday condemned a court's decision to sentence a man for "terrorist" crimes for sending hate e-mail to President Bush.
Tomi Sluga, 29, told the local court in the northeastern town of Murska Sobota he was drunk and only joking when he sent an e-mail to the White House web before a June 2001 Bush visit to the small Alpine state.
"President, save the Earth, you ass, you will be killed in Ljubljana. Welcome!" the email read.
The court found Sluga guilty of "endangering a protected person" and gave him a two-year suspended sentence on Monday, the first conviction under Slovenia's new anti-terrorism laws.
Protesters from several rights group demonstrated outside the supreme court in Ljuljana, demanding Sluga's case be reconsidered.
"It is an exaggeration that has nothing to do with security," Gorazd Kovacic of the local Mirovni Institut (Peace Institute) told Reuters.
"We wanted to protest against the court's senseless decision to sentence a person for terrorism just for sending an e-mail," said Marta Gregorcic, a prominent rights activist who was among the three dozen demonstrators.
Slovenia broke away from Yugoslavia in 1991 and is due to join the European Union in May.