Finland's Supreme Court on Tuesday approved the dissolution of a neo-Nazi organization whose activities it said constitute an "abuse" of the country's of rights of freedom of expression and assembly.
The ruling relates to a 2017 petition from Finnish Police to disband the Nordic Resistance Movement (known in Finland as NMR), which is active in most Scandinavian countries.
Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter
The police petition argued that the organization's activities violated "the law and good practice," by, among other things, spreading "hateful rhetoric about immigrants, sexual minorities and Jews."
NMR, which designates itself as a "revolutionary national socialist" organization, disputed the police petition and argued that its activity was protected under freedom of speech and assembly rights, Finnish broadcaster YLE reported.
The Supreme Court, however, sided with police and said the organization should be banned since its activities by definition were a "misuse of these rights."
"We think the court's decision is a clear message that organizations that are violent and use speech that is racist or in other ways violate human dignity should not have a place in Finnish society," Police Inspector Heikki Lausmaa at the National Board of Police said in a statement.
Following a district court verdict, which an appeals court upheld, the group has been banned since 2018, though police have said they believe its members have tried to resume their activities under a new name.
NMR was founded in 1997 as the Swedish Resistance Movement. Sister organizations then sprang up in other Nordic countries throughout the 2000s, and in 2016 these groups united as NMR.
The group stages protests and produces anti-immigration media, but has also been linked to acts of violence.
In 2016, a 28-year old man died after he was assaulted by NMR members in Helsinki. Watchdog organization Expo reports that several members have been convicted in a series of bombings in Gothenburg in 2016 and 2017.
Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!
