The Pirkanmaa District Court has found Geurt Marco de Wit, chairman of the nationalist and anti-immigrant organization Finnish Nation First, guilty of numerous charges of defamation and incitement to hostility.
The court sentenced to six months suspended imprisonment for three counts of aggravated defamation and 13 counts of defamation, as well as two new charges of inciting a hostile against a group of people and one charge of violating religious freedom.
The court also ruled that de Wit should delete several of his articles published on the internet and order him to pay the victims nearly โฌ 40,000 in compensation for the suffering and legal costs.
Five charges were dismissed.
De Wit had denied all charges.
An “exceptionally large” case
"exceptionally large" 20 plaintiffs, including police, prosecutors and at least one judge, brought an action against de Witi.
In addition, de Witi was accused of inciting ethnic hostility and violating the right to religious freedom in the context of his partyโs spring 2019 parliamentary election campaign.
According to the prosecutor, de Wit published articles threatening and insulting Muslims, dark-skinned people, Afghans, refugees and asylum seekers on the basis of their skin color, background, national and ethnic origin, and religion.
De Wit was The Finnish people first, or the nation of Finland first, at that time and he was a candidate for parliament.
De Wit has previously been sentenced to probation for violently resisting an official in the performance of his duties, for two reasons, for not submitting to the police and for blocking the police.
The judgments are not final, as de Wit has the right to appeal.
Source: The Nordic Page