Central MP Mikko Kärnä asked on Twitter whether constitutional law professor Tuomas Ojanen wrote the dissenting opinion of the Green MPs in the al-Hol case.
Helsinki the district court has sentenced the MP from the center Mikko Kärnän for defamation. Kärnä reported on the message service Twitter.
In the trial, the prosecutors demanded a fine for Kärnä for defamation. According to the prosecutors, Kärnä presented the professor of constitutional law at the University of Helsinki Tuomas from Ojase false insinuations that were apt to undermine confidence in Ojase as an expert.
Kärnä denied the charge in court, but admitted that Ojanen “selected a bit poorly” as part of his messages.
On Twitter, Kärnä says that he is dissatisfied with the verdict.
“I will probably appeal the matter to the Court of Appeal. The ruling means that experts in public office would be above the public debate. I consider the issue quite problematic from the point of view of the rule of law and freedom of speech. I have nothing else to comment on at this point,” Kärnä wrote.
Judgment concerns the events of 2020, when the Constitutional Law Committee dealt with the Minister of Foreign Affairs Pekka Haaviston (green) ministerial responsibility matter.
At that time, the Constitutional Law Committee criticized Haavisto’s procedure in the so-called al-Hol case, but saw no grounds for indictment.
The Constitutional Committee’s decision was not unanimous, but the green member of the committee Bella Forsgren and a green deputy Mari Holopainen left a dissenting opinion.
Kärnä, on the other hand, started asking on Twitter whether the real author of the dissenting opinion was professor Tuomas Ojanen. He published several messages related to the topic, some of which mentioned Ojanen.
Kärnä said in the courtroom in September that the opposition of the green representatives arose exceptionally quickly. According to him, there was a “political rumor” that it was written by Ojanen.
“They talk about these things in the village. It would be good to find out. After reading the long and comprehensive rebuttal and comparing it to Ojanen’s style just by analyzing the text, I understand the doubts. Of course, they speak in the villages as pretty sure information,” Kärnä wrote in one message.
Ojanen has denied that he participated in writing the dissenting opinion in any way. Kärnä also said in court that he believed Ojas in that he did not participate in the writing.
However, the MP did not feel that he had offended Ojas with his messages. In his own opinion, Kärnä was only trying to find out the author of the objection of the green representatives with his question.
Kärnä had around 40,000 followers on Twitter at the time the messages were published.
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