Fighters + Lovers

Fighters+Lovers is a controversial group consisting of 7 danish people. The group has made a clothing company, brand and record label [en icon [http://www.fightersandlovers.org/spip.php?article32 Fighters+Lovers About page] ] which sells controversial T-shirts, perfumes and CDs [da iconen icon [http://www.fightersandlovers.org/index.php Fighters+Lovers official homepage] ] . The t-shirts feature logos of the FARC and the PFLP. These groups have been labeled by the United States Government and the European Union as terrorist organizations. The company sold the t-shirts and collected 24.982 DKK (about 5000$) and they were going to send the money to a radio station run by FARC and a printing press run by PFLP, however the money never made it to these groups because the police arrested the 7 people in February 2006 and withheld the funds [da icon [http://www.dr.dk/Nyheder/Indland/2008/09/18/094822.htm Denmarks Radio] on the case agains Fighters+Lovers] .

On November 5, 2007 the group released a CD for sale called "Cumbia Clash – from the jungle to the streets" [en icon [http://www.fightersandlovers.org/spip.php?article11 Fighersandlovers.com Cumbia Clash - music for fighters and lovers] ] with songs supporting the FARC in techno/cumbia. During the event members of the company accused the democratically elected President of Colombia, Álvaro Uribe of imposing an illegal government. [ [http://www.semana.com/wf_InfoArticulo.aspx?idArt=108138 es icon Revista Semana: Just what we needed: Danish launched cumbias with themes favoring FARC] ]

Court cases

The seven members of Fighters+Lovers were accused by the Danish Prosecution Service of violating the European Union's anti-terrorism laws. On December 13 2007 all seven accused were acquitted of the charges [en icon [http://www.reuters.com/article/middleeastCrisis/idUSL13308354 Reuters: Danish T-shirt group acquitted of funding terrorism] . December 13, 2007] [ [http://politiken.dk/indland/article445946.ece da icon Politiken: Syv frifundet for støtte til terror] ] [ [http://www.domstol.dk/KobenhavnsByret/nyheder/pressemeddelelser/Pages/DomisagTshirt.aspx da icon Domstol.dk: Dom i T-shirt - fightersandlovers-sagen ] ] . The case was appealed to the second highest court in Denmark Landsretten, the jugdes found 6 of the seven guilty in supporting terrorist organizations, one was found innocent. Two were sentenced to 6 months in Prison, two others got 4 months suspended sentences and two got a 60 days suspended sentence. [da icon [http://www.domstol.dk/oestrelandsret/nyheder/Pressemeddelelser/Pages/Pressemeddelelse(T-shirt-sag).aspx Domstol.dk press release on the t-shirt case] ] [da icon [http://politiken.dk/indland/article565913.ece Politiken.dk, Fighters+Lovers sentenced for support of terror] [da icon [http://www.fightersandlovers.org/spip.php?article58 Fightersandlovers.org Fighters+Lovers sentenced and acquitted] .

The groups lawyer Thorkild Høyer told the press [da icon [http://politiken.dk/indland/article569394.ece Politiken, Fighters+Lovers vil anke til højesteret] ] that he would try and appeal the case to the danish high court Højesteret.

Criticism

The case agains Fighters+Lovers has been criticised in Denmark for its cost. So far the price of the court cases has exceeded 1 mio DKK (US$ 200.000) which seems out of proportion given the fact that the amount to be sent was only 25.000 DKK (US$ 5000) [da icon [http://politiken.dk/kultur/article568544.ece Politiken: Sag om terrorstøtte koster kassen] ]

Reaction in Colombia

The Colombian magazine "Revista Semana" rejected the support Fighters + Lovers is giving the FARC alleging that the FARC as a terrorist organization has continuously violated International humanitarian law and Human rights. The magazine also mentioned that the organization ignored the reality of Colombia by supporting a group that kidnaps, extorts, assassinates, steals, participates in the illegal drug trade, arms trafficking, forcedly recruitment of children and women among other systematic violations of Human rights [ [http://www.semana.com/wf_InfoArticulo.aspx?idArt=108138 es icon Revista Semana: Just what we needed: Danish launched cumbias with themes favoring FARC] ] .

The work of Fighters and Lovers has been publicly rejected in Colombia and this has been documented in different tv shows, news papers and magazines.

Support

The group behind Fighters+Lovers has gotten support from Horserød-Stutthof Foreningen who include former members of the Danish resistance movement. When the Danish terror-law was first implemented they sent 1000DKK (US$ 200) to FARC and informed the Ministry of Justice of Denmark that they had done so, later they also sent the same amount to PFLP in support of Fighters+Lovers. So far with no reaction from the Ministry of Justice [da icon [http://avisen.dk/ok-for-modstandsfolk-at-give-penge-til-farc_2845.aspx Avisen.dk Ok for resistance movement to give money to FARC] ] , either because the principal case against Fighters+Lovers is still ongoing or because the Danish resistance movement is widely popular in Denmark and a court case agains them would be much harder given their status as freedom fighters.

References

Externals links

* [http://www.fightersandlovers.org/ Fighters+Lovers homepage]