Finland's Supreme Court dissolves Finnish branch of international neo-Nazi group

The Associated Press reports that Finland’s Supreme Court has finally dissolved the Nordic Resistance Movement in Finland. According to the indictment, the group abused the freedoms of assembly and speech to disseminate hatred against immigrants, Jews, and sexual minorities. 

Yesterday’s verdict by the highest court in Finland is the result of a long legal battle, with the Supreme Court first deciding to temporarily suspend the activities of the Finnish branch of the Nordic Resistance Movement in March of 2019. Yesterday’s verdict means that the group’s legal operation is definitively over there. 

Legal representatives of the neo-Nazi group emphasized during the trial that they believed the movement had always operated within the bounds of freedom of assembly and expression. According to the Finnish Police, however, the movement has abused those freedoms to “disseminate hate against immigrants, sexual minorities, and Jewish people.” 

In previous years the lower courts had also repeatedly decided to dissolve the movement. It attracted media attention in September 2016 when one of its members assaulted a 28-year-old man at a demonstration in Helsinki. 

Several days later, the victim died in hospital as a consequence of his injuries. In 2018 the perpetrator Jesse Torniainen, who was two years younger than the person whose death he caused, was sentenced to 27 months in prison for having committed grievous bodily harm.