Court jails “race war” neo-Nazis in Finland’s first far-right terrorism conviction

Päijät-Häme District Court has sentenced three men to prison for crimes committed with terrorist intent.

The case marks the first conviction in Finnish criminal history on terrorism offences linked to far-right ideology.

The main suspect in the case, 29-year-old Viljam Lauri Antero Nyman, was sentenced to three years and four months imprisonment on charges of aggravated firearms offences committed with terrorist intent as well as training to commit a terrorist act.

He was also convicted of a narcotics charge.

A second defendant, born in 1996, was sentenced to one year and nine months in prison on charges of aggravated firearms offences committed with terrorist intent and training to commit a terrorist act. He was also found guilty by the court of five other offences.

The third suspect, a man born in 2001, was convicted of aiding and abetting an aggravated firearms offence committed with terrorist intent, aiding and abetting training to commit a terrorist act as well as an additional minor firearms offence. He was handed a seven month suspended prison sentence and ordered by the court to pay a fine.

Prosecutors had told the court during the trial that the trio believed in far-right ideologies. The prosecution case was that the defendants were following “accelerationist” strategies, hoping to precipitate broader conflict they referred to as a “race war” through shocking acts of terror intended to destabilise Finland’s democracy.

The court further heard that the suspects believed in defending the superiority of the white population, which would involve the use of violence against perceived enemies of the white population and the nation state, including immigrants, ethnic and religious minorities, anti-fascists and social activists.

Investigating police officers said that the suspects had produced semi-automatic weapons based on the FGC-9 pistol calibre carbine using a 3D printer in preparation for the so-called “race war”.

A fourth man, born in 1957, was sentenced to one year and two months in prison for two firearms offences. He was not charged with any terrorism-related crimes.