The District Court of Southwest Finland has found Finns Party politician Jyrki Åland guilty on two charges of agitation against an ethnic group.
The court ordered Åland — the former chair of the Finns Party's Turku branch — to pay 60 income-linked day fines, amounting to a total of 1,200 euros.
The charges against Åland related to two videos. In the first, posted to Facebook in 2019, he made violent threats against immigrant-background taxi drivers.
The second video was posted to YouTube in January 2021, in which Åland said he hoped immigrants living in the Varissuo district of Turku would die. The material was removed from the video sharing platform following a public outcry.
The court ordered Åland to remove the 2019 video from Facebook as well.
The prosecutor in the case had argued that the content of both videos did not fall under the protection of freedom of speech, as they were offensive, threatening and constituted hate speech.
Åland is currently a deputy councillor on Turku City Council.