Denmark's Supreme Court began hearing arguments Thursday in the case of six Danes convicted of selling T-shirts to raise funds for the FARC and the Palestinian PLP.
The Copenhagen Appeals Court in September 2008 sentenced two of the men to six months in prison and handed suspended sentences to the other four for making and selling T-shirts inscribed with the logos of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, or PFLP, and the Armed Revolutionary Forces of Colombia, or FARC.
Both the FARC and the PFLP figure on the European Union's and U.S.' lists of terrorist organizations.
A seventh person, a hot dog salesman who had placed posters of the T-shirts on his stand, was acquitted by the appeals court.
The appeals court verdict overturned a lower court ruling in December
2007 that acquitted all seven after finding that the two organizations
were "not really terrorist" groups.
But the appeals court disagreed, ruling that the FARC and the PFLP are "terrorist organizations that have committed acts aimed at destabilizing a state or a government and have attacked civilian targets."
Most of the defendants are linked to a company called Fighters and Lovers.
The company sold the T-shirts on its Web site until police shut it down in 2006. The appeals court ordered the company's 24,000 kroner ($4,050) in sales confiscated.
The T-shirts were sold for EUR23 each, with EUR5 from each sale going towards a radio station in Colombia and a graphics studio in the Palestinian territories.
The site was later ordered reopened by judicial authorities, and Fighters and Lovers continues to sell the T-shirts.
The trial is due to wind up Friday and the verdict is expected this month.
According to anti-terror legislation adopted in Denmark following the
Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the U.S., any direct or indirect financing of
terrorist organizations is punishable by up to 10 years in prison. (AFP)
