The Court of Appeal however reduces the sentence and labels the crime as "minor". The district court sentenced him to SEK 25,000 in fines. The Court of Appeal lowers the sum to SEK 5,600.
The cartoon collector was convicted for having Japanese manga cartoon images of girls in sexual poses, as found in his computer. 39 of the pictures is against the law, the Court of Appeal believes. The district court found that 51 of the pictures found in the man's computer was against the law.
Controversial ruling
The District Court's ruling against the man quickly became very controversial in particular in the Swedish blogosphere and on the newspaper's culture pages. Can animated images really be criminal, people asked. At the center of the debate was also the conflict between the constitutional freedom of the press and the child pornography law.
In the past, cartoons depicting children in sexual situations was not forbidden by the child pornography law. But a legislative amendment in 1979 made also cartoon images unlawful.