Perussuomalaiset MP faces hate crime charge

A lawmaker of the main opposition Perussuomalaiset has been charged with hate crime, reported a Finnish language leading daily Helsingin Sanomat on Friday.

Mauri Peltokangas, an MP elected from Vaasa is facing the charge filed with the Ostrobothnia District Court at the beginning of August following a remark he posted in his Facebook page against a group of people.

Peltokangas denied the charge and told the Helsingin Sanomat that it was brought against him based on the Facebook remark posted one year ago.

He, however, did not make any further comment in this regard.

Earlier, in November 2020, the Pirkanmaa District Court convicted two leaders of the youth front of the Perussuomalaiset of ethnic agitation.

The court fined the two convicts for posting discriminatory contests on social media – Twitter and Facebook.

The court sentenced Toni Jalonen, former deputy chairman of the Perussuomalaiset youth wing to a 50-day fine and ordered to pay 300 euros.

Another leader, Johannes Sipola, who served as the chairman of the Perussuomalaiset Lapland chapter during the 2019 European elections, was also convicted of the same charge and ordered to pay EUR 240, a 40-day fine.

In October, 2019, the Oulu District Court sentenced another Perussuomalaiset lawmaker Sebastian Tynkkynen to pay a 50-day fine, about 4,050 euros, for anti-ethnic agitation.

The verdict applied to the text and images shared by Tynkkynen from the populist Perussuomalaiset in his Facebook account in 2016.

Perussuomalaiset Chairman Jussi Halla-aho, who is well-known for his strict anti-immigration views, was also convicted of inciting hatred against an ethnic group in 2012.