Activists from Extinction Rebellion Finland and Sweden’s Återställ Våtmarker sprayed red paint on columns of the Parliament House on 25 September. Organised in protest of the peat extraction operations of a Finnish majority state-owned company in Sweden, the stunt is provisionally investigated as aggravated criminal damage.
Koskimäki said also the findings of the investigation may inform the claim but stressed that the main focus is on the events that occurred outside the Parliament House, according to Ilta-Sanomat.
Sari Turunen, the real estate manager of the Finnish Parliament, told STT last week that cleaning up the facade of the building will cost roughly 15,000 euros.
A claim to dissolve an association or organisation can be brought to a district court either by the National Police Board or the National Prosecution Authority. The claim can be granted if the court rules that the association or organisation has engaged in activity that is materially unlawful or contrary to accepted principles of morality.
Dissolution orders have been fairly rare in Finland. In recent years, district courts have issued such orders to two biker gangs implicated in drug distribution and violent crime and the neo-Nazi group Nordic Resistance Movement.
Dissolving Extinction Rebellion Finland has garnered support also from right-wing lawmakers and members of the public, particularly in the wake of the stunt outside the Parliament House.
A citizens’ initiative calling for the dissolution received the requisite 50,000 statements of support in only two days. Experts told Helsingin Sanomat in September that the initiative is unlikely to succeed given that it specifically demands that the group is defined as an organised crime group by a court of law.
“You can’t draft a law that prescribes that this is what a court of law should do. A court of law will evaluate it independently and in a non-biased way,” Sakari Melander, a professor of criminal law at the University of Helsinki, said to the newspaper on 28 September.
Demokraatti reported last Tuesday that Minister of Justice Leena Meri (PS) has indicated her readiness to look into dissolving the environmental group, adding that it is up to authorities, prosecutors and police board to decide whether the conditions are met.
Meri also revealed to the news outlet that she has already asked ministry officials to look into whether the current legislation affords sufficient powers to authorities.
“I’ve already asked the department if there’s anything in the law that currently creates an obstacle for authorities to intervene in, for example, someone setting up camp [during a protest]. It’s an entirely different thing to walk or march by than to camp in the middle of the road for hours,” she commented to Demokraatti according to Helsingin Sanomat.
Minister of the Interior, Transport and Communication Lulu Ranne (PS) stated earlier this month that she believes it is warranted to look into the possibility of dissolving Extinction Rebellion Finland.
Ranne is serving as the minister of the interior until year-end until the return of Mari Rantanen (PS). Rantanen in August announced she will step down temporarily due to her child’s serious illness.
Also the Pekka Aittakumpu (Centre) has voiced his support for dissolving Extinction Rebellion Finland.
Aleksi Teivainen – HT
