(Yle) The trial of Finns Party MP Sebastian Tynkkynen began on Thursday in the Oulu District Court. A lawmaker from the northwest municipality where the proceedings are being held, Tynkkynen is suspected of agitation against an ethnic group in a 2016 Facebook post on Islam and terrorism.
Representing himself in the proceedings, Tynkkynen denied having committed a crime and said that the trial was politically-motivated.
The prosecutor in the case maintained that Tynkkynen must have known that his Facebook update was racist in nature and constituted defamatory hate speech generally directed at Muslims. The prosecution called for the court to impose a 60-day fine for the offence.
