Of course it should be appealed, let them state their goals publically, which will result in their public condemnation and humiliation, not victimhood, which generates sympathy for their movement.
Neo-Nazi group appeals ban
Next, the tabloid Iltalehti gives a summary of what likely happened in the Turku Court of Appeals yesterday, where the Finnish branch of the neo-Nazi Nordic Resistance Movement is appealing a lower court’s decision to outlaw the group’s activities.
In November 2017, in a case introduced by the National Police Board, the Pirkanmaa District Court found that the group known as PVL should be abolished in Finland. IL reports that the earlier finding argued that the PVL was “hostile to a democratic society and possessed a sense of entitlement to use violence”.
The tabloid says it received a copy of the PVL’s rebuttal, which says that the only similar calls for a group to disband in Finland targeted the motorcycle club Cannonball MC, and in these cases, proposals to ban the club’s activities were rejected by the courts. It also argues that it is not a registered organization, and so a ban would not be applicable.
The neo-Nazi group argues that the European Court of Human Rights has maintained a very high threshold for limiting people’s basic rights, and a ban would limit the members’ freedom of speech.
In the original case, the National Police Board argued that PVL encouraged violence. The fact that Jesse Tornainen was employed by the group was offered as proof of this. Tornainen was convicted of aggravated assault in late 2016, after kicking a passerby in the chest during a PVL demonstration. The kick caused the victim to fall to the ground and hit his head, and he died shortly afterwards. In Turku yesterday, the PVL argued that Tornainen’s actions were his own and “did not reflect the group’s acceptance of or support for violence”.
