The District Court of South-West Finland sentenced a Turku police officer to fines and court fees, after finding him guilty of slander and assault.
The ruling stems from an incident in a taxi queue in 2017, in which a woman noticed a man who was acting aggressively toward others waiting for rides.
According to testimony, the man was shouting racist comments to three men who appeared to be foreigners, who had cut in front of him in the queue.
The woman tried to calm the man down at which point the off-duty officer hit her in the face. Immediately after the assault, the man announced that he was a police officer.
The woman filed a criminal complaint, which led to charges against the defendant. The officer admitted to the court that he was intoxicated at the time of the incident but said that he found it difficult to believe that he had behaved as the woman claimed.
Ordered to pay fines, compensation
However, the court did not share the officer's opinion on the course of events.
Because the crime had racist motivations - and due to the fact he is a police officer - the court raised the defendant's fines for the incident.
The officer was ordered to pay 2,640 euros in fines for the slander and assault charges. He was also ordered to pay 700 euros to the woman he assaulted, as well as her court costs, which amounted to 1,800 euros.
The South-West Finland chief of police, Tapio Huttunen, called the incident very unfortunate.
"We learned about the verdict yesterday [Wednesday]. We will now call him in and then decide what consequences this will have," Huttunen told Yle.
Potential repercussions the officer could face at work range from a written warning to a temporary suspension.
Tabloid newspaper Ilta-Sanomat was first to report on the ruling.