Senior figures in the nationalist Finns Party have questioned rule of law in Finland, and suggested the judiciary is biased, after another one of their Members of Parliament was convicted of anti-Islam posts on Facebook.
Oulu MP Sebastian Tynkkynen (Finns) was on trial in Oulu, with the case hinging on a 2016 Facebook post which prosecutors said equated being a Muslim to being a terrorist. His posts, which were available to view online until 2018, had images of the perpetrators of terrorist attacks and stated “they have one thing in common: they all serve Allah.”
On Thursday a judge at the Oulu District Court found Tynkkynen guilty and fined him more than €4000, and ordered him to remove the posts from his social media.
Tynkkynen, a former reality TV show contestant on Big Brother, said he will appeal the sentence. He was previously convicted of breach of the peace for anti-Muslim posts on Facebook
Senior members of the Finns Party have called into doubt the judge’s decision, saying “unfortunately with the current poor and vague legislation, this criminal offense allows for interpretations that go into absurdity.”
Halla-aho has himself been convicted over anti-Somali writings on his blog - a ruling upheld by Finland’s Supreme Court on appeal.
The leader of the Finns Party Parliamentary Group Ville Taivo says his party has been pushing to relax the laws around hate speech and online writings which target one particular group of people.
Meanwhile Mikko Taavitsainen, worked for MEP Laura Huuhtasaari (Finns) during the 2019 parliamentary elections, says courts shouldn’t be allowed to decide on the behaviour of MPs, only voters.
“Red-green fascism is the greatest enemy of democracy and freedom of expression” writes Taavitsainen on Twitter.
Finland’s judiciary is independent from the government.
