A Danish court on Monday sentenced a FARC supporter to six months in jail for his attempts to raise funds for the Colombian guerrilla organization, as well as for Palestinian organization the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
Patrick MacManus, originally from Ireland, is the spokesman of left-wing Danish organization “Oprør” (Rebellion). MacManus received the jail sentence after the court ruled that while it could not be proved that the FARC had received 50,000 Danish krones ($10,000) from the activist group, there was evidence that the money was raised and that Oprør had attempted to transfer it to the FARC.
MacManus referred to the money in various press releases, interviews and on Oprør’s website, the court found.
A photo of alleged FARC leaders in the jungle holding a plastic bag from a Danish supermarket, supposedly containing the cash, was also submitted as evidence in the case.
The court’s ruling follows the 2008 conviction of members of another Danish activist group, Fighters+Lovers, for raising funds for the FARC by selling T-shirts.
The Copenhagen Appeals Court in September 2008 sentenced two men from the group to six months in prison, and handed suspended sentences to four others, for making and selling T-shirts inscribed with the logos of the FARC and the PFLP.
Both the FARC and the PFLP figure on the European Union’s and U.S.’s lists of terrorist organizations.
According to anti-terror legislation adopted in Denmark following the September 11, 2001 attacks in the U.S., any direct or indirect financing of terrorist organizations is punishable by up to ten years in prison.
