Finns Party Member of Parliament Sebastian Tynkkynen is on trial today in Oulu, facing charges over alleged anti-Islam posts he wrote on social media.
Tynkkynen, a former contestant on the Big Brother reality TV show, entered the District Court building to cheers from his supporters.
The case hinges on a 2016 Facebook post which prosecutors say equates being a Muslim to being a terrorist. His posts, which were available to view online until 2018, allegedly had images of the perpetrators of terrorist attacks and stated “they have one thing in common: they all serve Allah.”
The prosecutor at the trial said Tynkkynen’s posts amounted to “deliberate, racist and disparaging hate speech” which was directed at all Muslims and was “likely to provoke contempt and even religious intolerance towards Muslims.”
Tynkkynen denies this is the case, and has worked on social media to frame the trial as a free speech issue.
He says that as a politician it’s only natural for him to take a stand on current affairs, and he didn’t write “nor figuratively expressed, that all terrorists are Muslims.”
On Thursday morning Tynkkynen wrote on Twitter that the judge was blocking his request to film the trial, and refused to explain his decision.
“Given the societal importance of this issue […] the decision is completely incomprehensible” the MP wrote on Twitter.
Tynkkynen was previously convicted of breach of the peace for anti-Muslim posts on Facebook, but he’s not the first Finns Party MP to face such charges in court. Party leader Jussi Halla-aho has himself been convicted of similar offenses.
