Finnish MP sentenced for instigation against Muslims

A court in central Finland ordered Member of Parliament (MP) Teuvo Hakkarainen on Wednesday to pay fines for having published "instigations against a population group."

The Finns Party MP received the verdict on account of comments he made on his social media in the wake of the Nice truck attack last summer.

The court determined that what he wrote on the U.S.-based social media site Facebook was slanderous towards Islam believers, and also included a threat as Hakkarainen demanded that Islam followers be extradited from Finland.

Hakkarainen's defense claimed he did not know that instigation against a population group was considered criminal behavior under Finnish law. But the court noted that ignorance of the law was not grounds for escaping punishment and that the MP must have been aware of the law.

The writeup has been visible on Facebook until now, but the court ordered Hakkarainen to delete it.

The MP was not in the courtroom when the sentence was handed down. The fine totalled 1,160 euros (1,214 U.S. dollars).

There have been similar legal processes under way involving members of the populist Finns Party. A local politician in Tampere was sentenced recently, and a youth league politician in Helsinki is awaiting trial. Endit