Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Saturday that persons desecrating the Koran should face the “most severe punishment” and demanded Sweden hand them over for prosecution in Islamic countries, Iran’s state media reported.

“All Islamic scholars agree that those who desecrate the Koran deserved the most severe punishment… The duty of that (Swedish) government is to hand over the perpetrator to the judicial systems of Islamic countries,” Khamenei said in a statement carried by state media.