Swedish Artist Jailed for Islam Posts - "They Can Come and Get Me"

MALMÖ - Swedish street artist Dan Park, 58, has been ordered by the Swedish Prison and Probation Service to report to prison to serve six months for incitement against an ethnic or national group, a hate speech offence under Swedish law. He says he has no intention of turning up voluntarily and has applied to serve the sentence with an electronic ankle tag instead.

On Tuesday evening, Park posted a photo of the prison service's decision on X. His comment to followers was short: "They can come and get me."

Ordered to Report by March

According to the decision, dated 19 October 2026, Park must report to Gruvberget, an open prison in Åmotsbruk in central Sweden, no later than 17 March 2027.

The prison service states that he was sentenced to six months by the Court of Appeal for Skåne and Blekinge on 22 July 2026. It notes that he is already known to the agency and was last released in July 2025, but finds no particular risks that would rule out placement in an open, low-security facility.

Convicted Over Posts on Islam and Hamas

The sentence was first handed down by Malmö District Court in April 2026 and upheld on appeal in July. The prosecution followed a police report from Näthatsgranskaren, an activist group that reports online speech to the police, and concerned eleven posts published on X in October and November 2023, during the war between Israel and Hamas.

The court found Park guilty on seven counts and acquitted him on four. The convictions covered both satirical images comparing Hamas to Nazism and written comments criticising Islam and Muslims in Sweden, including posts describing Islam as a violent ideology and saying that those who reject Sweden's democratic rights and free speech could move to the Middle East.

Park denied the charges and said he did not run the X account in question, although he admitted creating the artworks. Because he had previous prison convictions for similar speech offences, the court ruled that no sentence other than six months in prison was possible.

"Criticising Islamists' Hatred of Jews"

When the appeal court upheld the sentence in July, Park wrote on X that the ruling showed how the justice system treats those who criticise Islamist antisemitism.

"We know that in Sweden you get six months in prison for criticising Islamists' hatred of Jews. And we know that left-wing Islamists can freely spread gross incitement against Jews in the streets and squares without being prosecuted," he wrote.

In a follow-up comment on Wednesday, Park said he has now asked to serve the sentence outside prison under intensive supervision with an electronic tag. "I have applied for an ankle tag instead, so we will see if the state accepts it," he wrote.