On Wednesday, the Pirkanmaa District Court convicted two members of the Finnish party’s youth wing of ethnic agitation.
Toni Jalonen, the former vice – chairman, the Finnish Party ‘s youth group, was sentenced to a 50 – day fine for inciting an ethnic group and ordered to pay 300 euros. Johannes Sipola, who served as Finland’s chairman of the Lapland government in the 2019 European Parliament elections, was also convicted of the same charge and ordered to pay a 40-day fine equivalent to 240 euros.
Two of the charges relate to images and text published on a Twitter account managed by the Finnish Party’s youth group, and a third focused on a Facebook message from the same organization during the 2019 European election campaign.
A Twitter account posted a picture of a dark leather family with text "Vote for the Finnish party so that Finland’s future does not look like this".
Prosecutor: Freedom of speech is not an excuse
Prosecutors argued that the tweet and related comment incited ethnic hatred and were not acceptable as political speech.
The defense argued that the purpose of social media messages was not to offend any group of people, but to criticize the European Union.
The beep prompted the Ministry of Education and Culture to cancel and move back to receive state funding for the organization. The party group appealed the decision to the administrative courts, but filed for bankruptcy in June.
Burka’s picture on Facebook
That Facebook post included two characters dressed in a black burqa. The attached text was read, "Do you want our country to look like this? Don’t stay asleep. Vote."
The prosecutor alleged that the Facebook update slandered Muslims based on their religion.
According to the defense, the post supported the introduction of a ban on burqas in Finland. The youth organization and the main party later severed ties, and the party now has a new youth unit.
Source: The Nordic Page