A preliminary ruling from the Supreme Court outlines the persecution. The lower courts had reached the opposite conclusion.
Docent Johan Backman committed the reporter Jessikka Aron persecution by sending him a large number of messages via social media, the Supreme Court (KKO) ruled on Friday. In this respect, the KKO annulled the decision of the Helsinki Court of Appeal, which dismissed the charge of persecution.
Instead, the KKO dismissed Bäckman’s verdict of incitement to gross defamation. As a result, Bäckman’s verdict was lowered.
He was sentenced by the KKO to 60 days’ probation after three months in the Court of Appeal.
The preliminary ruling of the Supreme Court outlines how the characteristics of the crime of persecution are to be interpreted. Persecution was added to the law in 2014.
According to KKO, Bäckman’s two-way messages, as well as publications on Twitter and Facebook’s public pages, were the kind of contact that is meant by persecution in the Penal Code.
The Supreme Court held that Bäckman’s messages were not intended to deal with Aro’s writings on Russia’s influence on information, but rather to limit the debate and to silence and belittle Aro.
The writings focused mainly on the person of Aro. The Supreme Court found that the man’s freedom of speech had not established a right to his proceedings.
The KKO has previously issued one preliminary ruling on persecution. In its decision issued in the spring of 2020, the KKO consideredthat the man who disseminated false and insulting allegations from his colleague was not guilty of persecution but only a gross insult.
Journalist, non-fiction writer Jessikka Aroo has been the subject of long-term harassment by various authorities and courts for more than five years.
KKO further investigated whether Bäckman had instigated the founder of MV magazine Ilya Janitskin to insult the glory of Aro. This was the only charge that Bäckman was blamed in the Court of Appeal.
Now the Supreme Court overturned this verdict. According to the Supreme Court, the act did not meet the characteristics of incitement.
According to the Court of Appeal, Bäckman provided Janitskin with material on Aro’s private life for publication.
The material was published most obviously for the purpose of harm, the Court of Appeal concluded.
“The plaintiff has been despised in a way that has caused great suffering. Considering the quality of the publications and the way they are distributed, the act has also been outrageous, ”the Court of Appeal stated in the judgment.
Janitskin also died in the middle of the trial, so for him, the case lapsed in the Court of Appeal. The one-year and ten-month absolute prison sentences he received at the district council remained in force.
The lower courts disagreed on what crimes Bäckman had committed. The Helsinki District Court convicted Bäckman of a total of three crimes, namely persecution, aggravated defamation and incitement to aggravated defamation. He was sentenced to one year in prison.
The Court of Appeal overturned the verdict except for incitement to defamation.
The news is complete.
Read more: The Supreme Court is investigating whether Johan Bäckman’s journalist is chasing Jessikka Aro
Read more: Court of Appeal mitigates sentence of Johan Bäckman, accused of persecuting Yle’s journalist – death closes Ilya Janitskin’s appeal
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