The Turkish figure having made anti-Armenian statements during an Azerbaijani-Turkish rally at Sergels torg in Stockholm on 9 April 2015 is facing the court, reported Ermenihaber, citing ANF agency.

The already former vice-president of the legal Turkish national association in Sweden Barbaros Leilani, who had expressed the statement “the Armenian dogs need to be careful, death to the Armenian dogs” during the rally, has testified.

Commenting on his statements, Leilani said “he was feeling bad on the day of the rally, was in a grave psychological situation and hadn’t prepared his speech”. Trying to justify himself, Leilani claimed that he had used the word “dog” to blame “not the peace-loving Armenians, but the Armenians supporting terrorism”.

When the judge asked him if he had anything to add, the Turkish figure said the following: “I apologize.”

Stating that Leilani’s statement is a crime provoking hatred against an ethnic group, the prosecutor demanded that the court sentence him to parole and set a fine.

The verdict will be announced on December 14.

The video of the April 9 rally in Stockholm was broadcast on a Swedish television channel and highly criticized. Afterwards, Leilani had stated that he had said all that under the influence and that they couldn’t be viewed as threats.

However, his justification wasn’t approved. Barbaros Leilani was forced to resign from the position that he held.

Besides that, after the incident, nearly 50 Armenian, Kurdish and Swedish organizations of Stockholm had addressed the prosecutor’s office with the demand to punish Leilani.