Finnish man wearing KKK outfit in anti-immigration protest faces prosecution

Finnish police have completed the pre-trial investigation on a man who wore a Ku Klux Klan costume in an anti-immigration protest, and transferred the case to the prosecutor's office for prosecution.

In late September 2015, a group of up to 40 demonstrators threw fireworks, stones and lighted torches when two buses carrying about 100 asylum seekers drove up to a refugee reception center in the southern Finnish town of Lahti.

One of the protesters wore an iconic white hood and robe of the Ku Klux Klan, a typical racist organization in the United States. The man was also holding a Finnish national flag.

During the pre-trial investigation, the 20-year-old young man was suspected of illegal masquerading, public incitement, and national flag desecration, reported Finnish daily Helsingin Sanomat on Wednesday.

Jari Kiiskinen, detective chief inspector at Hame Police Department, told the daily that the police also investigated the case as a racist crime, as the suspect allegedly had racist motive.

The case was transferred on Wednesday to the Prosecutor's Office of Western Uusimaa for prosecution. The prosecution of the case will be finished in October this year at the earliest, estimated Pasi Palsi, district prosecutor at the Prosecutor's Office.

The incident happened when an increasing number of asylum seekers were swarming into Finland. According to the Finnish Immigration Service, about 15,000 had arrived in Finland at the end of September 2015. Endit