The District Court of Southwest Finland has ruled that a Basic Finn politician Jyrki Åland guilty of two charges of incitement against an ethnic group.
The court ordered Åland – the former chairman of the Turku branch of the Basic Finns – to pay 60 earnings-related daily fines, totaling 1,200 euros.
The charges against Åland were linked to two videos. In his first post on Facebook in 2019, he violently threatened taxi drivers with an immigrant background.
The second video was posted on YouTube in January 2021, where the Ålander said he hoped that immigrants living in Turku’s Varissuo would die. The material was removed from the video sharing platform following a public commotion.
The court also ordered Åland to remove the 2019 video from Facebook.
The prosecutor had argued that the content of both videos did not fall within the protection of freedom of expression because they were offensive, threatening and hate speech.
Åland is currently the Deputy Commissioner of the Turku City Council.
Source: The Nordic Page