Evidence gathered by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) proved that the “Towards Freedom” group continued with the same ideology and active members as the banned Nordic Resistance Movement.
The Helsinki District Court has fined four neo-Nazis for being involved in illegal group activities.
In its ruling handed down on Friday, the court said the defendants had continued to operate under the banned neo-Nazi organisation, the Nordic Resistance Movement (abbreviated in Finnish as PVL), instead using the name “Towards Freedom” (Kohti vapautta in Finnish and abbrevaited as KV).
The activities included organising demonstrations in Tampere and Turku to coincide with International Holocaust Remembrance Day in 2020.
Finland’s Supreme Court ordered the Nordic Resistance Movement to wind up its activities in the autumn of 2020.
A probe by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) found that the KV group had adopted the same symbols and colour schemes previously used by PVL, and that the groups operated under the same principles, objectives and ideology with the same active members.
Before Friday’s ruling, the defendants in the case had denied the charges, arguing that KV began operating in 2016, long before the Nordic Resistance Movement was dissolved. However, the court dismissed this argument as, according to KV’s own statements, the large-scale activities of the movement only started in 2019 — soon after the Supreme Court placed a temporary ban on PVL’s activities.
“The district court considers that the activities of the Towards Freedom movement have in fact been a continuation of the activities of the banned Nordic Resistance Movement,” the ruling stated.
In addition to the illegal group activities charges, the men were also found guilty of several counts of incitement to ethnic hatred.
The court sentenced two of the men to 60 days in prison and the two other defendants to 70 days on all charges.
Three other men were also charged with being involved in illegal group activities in relation to the same movement, but the statute of limitations had expired before they were served with the court summons.
One of the three was also convicted of aggravated damage to Turku Synagogue in January 2020.
The court ruled that the man smeared red paint on the outer walls of the synagogue and attached a sign to the gate which included hate speech aimed at the Jewish community.
The man was convicted of aggravated assault, three counts of incitement against an ethnic group as well as a firearms offence, and he received a one year and three months suspended prison sentence.
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