Dane sentenced to four months for coughing on police
AFP - [email protected] •
19 Feb, 2021
Updated Fri 19 Feb 2021 10:30 CEST
A young man was sentenced on Thursday to four months in jail after he coughed at Danish policemen while shouting "corona", the Supreme Court said.
The 20-year-old was returning home from a birthday party in the city of Aarhus when he was stopped by police in March last year during Denmark's first lockdown.
Standing just half a metre (less than two feet) away, the man yelled "corona" at two officers and coughed in their faces, a court statement said.
While he did not have the coronavirus, the man acknowledged being intoxicated, and was arrested by the unamused agents.
A district court declined to convict him, but an appeals court later imposed a three-month sentence.
Denmark's Supreme Court ruled that the coughing, combined with shouting, constituted a "threat of violence against a police officer" and added a fourth month to the sentence based on an updated law.
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The 20-year-old was returning home from a birthday party in the city of Aarhus when he was stopped by police in March last year during Denmark's first lockdown.
Standing just half a metre (less than two feet) away, the man yelled "corona" at two officers and coughed in their faces, a court statement said.
While he did not have the coronavirus, the man acknowledged being intoxicated, and was arrested by the unamused agents.
A district court declined to convict him, but an appeals court later imposed a three-month sentence.
Denmark's Supreme Court ruled that the coughing, combined with shouting, constituted a "threat of violence against a police officer" and added a fourth month to the sentence based on an updated law.
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