Speaker of Parliament Jussi Halla-aho (PS) oversaw a plenary session in the Parliament House in Helsinki on 20 December 2023. Halla-aho in late 2023 issued two reports of an offence over social media posts that described him as a fascist. Helsinki Police Department on Tuesday revealed it has opened a pre-trial investigation based on the reports. (Heikki Saukkomaa – Lehtikuva)
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HELSINKI POLICE DEPARTMENT on Tuesday reported that it has opened a pre-trial investigation in which two people are suspected of defamation for using the term “fascist” on X, the micro-blogging platform known previously as Twitter.
While the press release identified neither the victim nor the suspects, the investigation appears to stem from reports submitted by Speaker of Parliament Jussi Halla-aho (PS).
“Helsinki Police Department on 28 November 2023 received a report of an offence concerning defamation. According to the report, comments that have defamed their target have been published on the messaging service X. The comments used the term ‘fascist’,” the press release reads.
Comedian Ilkka Kivi and Aino Tuominen (Greens), a deputy councillor at the City of Helsinki, have previously revealed that they are the targets of offence reports submitted by Halla-aho.
Halla-aho, who is the presidential candidate of the Finns Party, has stated that he decided to report the posts to police, despite his earlier statements on the matter, in order to determine where the lines of acceptable speech are. As chairperson of the populist right-wing party, for example, he was a proponent of “broad” freedom of speech – the idea that people should tolerate offensive text without resorting to legal recourse.
“It’d be good to get the police, a prosecutor or a court to rule on whether it’s appropriate to call a person who’s operating legally in politics a ‘fascist’,” he messaged to Helsingin Sanomat on 19 December.
Helsinki Police Department on Tuesday said it is premature to estimate how long the pre-trial investigation will take.
Aleksi Teivainen – HT
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Source: www.helsinkitimes.fi
