The Court of Appeal examined only one social media publication. It upheld the acquittal because it was not an unlawful incitement against a group of people.
24.2. 16:26
Turku The Court of Appeal has annulled the fines imposed on two former members of basic Finnish youth for inciting the ethnic group.
The annulment is due to the fact that according to the Court of Appeal, the Pirkanmaa District Court did not have jurisdiction to hear the matter.
The main rule of law is that a criminal case is heard where it has taken place. However, if crimes committed in different parts of the country are interconnected, they can be dealt with in one of the district courts of the scene.
In this case, the former vice-president of the association Toni Jalonen had written his Twitter post in Pori, and another man had commented on it in Rovaniemi.
The woman, who was the third accused, had made her own Facebook post in Lempäälä, which belongs to the Pirkanmaa District Court. Thus, his charges could be dealt with.
Men however, the charges had nothing to do with the woman’s writing.
According to the Court of Appeal, the mere fact that the publications were related to the European elections and the voting campaign of young Finns does not constitute a connection within the meaning of the law that would have allowed all cases to be dealt with together.
For this reason, the men’s charges are inadmissible. The Court of Appeal thus abolished the fine imposed on them in the district court.
In a controversial article, a text was published on the association’s Twitter account during the European elections in May 2019, stating: “Vote for basic Finns so that Finland’s future does not look like this.” Pictured was a dark-skinned family.
The paths of the youth organization and the party then parted ways. The basic Finns severed their ties with their youth organization when it did not accept the change in the rules demanded by the party. After the resignation, the party founded a new youth organization called Perussuomalainen nooriso ry.
Read more: The tweets of young people from basic Finns were hate speech, looked right and sentenced to daily fines
Turku the Court of Appeal examined the woman’s charge, but the decision did not change. The district court’s acquittal remained in force.
The woman had posted a picture on Facebook of a woman wearing a jar.
The woman in the picture wrote that voting could affect whether Islamization takes over Europe and women’s rights are trampled on in the future. According to him, the Basic Finns are the only party that has consistently opposed this development.
The Court of Appeal held that the inscription with its images did not constitute incitement against a group of people prohibited by the Criminal Code.
“Looking at the writings and picture that emerge from the evidence as a whole, [nainen] does not insult, slander or discriminate against Muslims as a group on the basis of religion. [Nainen] rather, within the limits of constitutional freedom of expression, it has expressed its views on the wearing of the burqa in relation to the status of women. “
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