(Yle) The Kanta-Häme District Court has cleared a total of seven defendants — comprising police officers and security guards — of all charges in relation to an incident in which female asylum seekers claimed they were forced to remove their head coverings.
The incident [occurred] in May 2017 in the city of Hämeenlinna, when the women refused to remove their hijabs for police to take registration photos.
According to the indictment, an inspector of the Häme Police Department ordered his officers to remove the women’s scarves, by force if necessary.
The prosecutor in the case told the court that the women resisted, leading to the defendants pushing them against a wall before finally removing their scarves and taking the photographs.
