The Helsinki District Court has sentenced the city councilor for abusing the man’s race Abdirahim "Husu" Hussein (SDP) in 2019, a case that garnered widespread social attention.
The incident took place in November 2019, when three male passengers traveled in a taxi driven by Hussein. During the trip, one of the men showed Hussein racial allegations about his skin color and country of birth, including allegations that all immigrants were rapists.
The man denied allegations of the use of racist language and argued that Hussein should be able to tolerate criticism for his status as a politician. However, the district court held that Hussein’s political position was irrelevant and that holding public office did not justify racist allegations.
The court sentenced the man to 40 income-related "day fines", which means he will pay a total fine of € 1,440.
The incident led to the suspension of Hussein from the Social Democratic Party until June 2020, when he admitted his initial claim to have removed the abusive passenger from the vehicle. Hussein’s taxi driver Taxi Helsinki investigated the case and found that his story did not match the taxi’s GPS data.
Hussein later admitted that part of the story was not true, and he apologized.
Source: The Nordic Page