Immigrants get fines following Kajaani pizzeria brawl last year
The Kajaani District Court handed down a sentence of 10 to 60 income-linked day-fines on Tuesday to four men of foreign background following the pizzeria brawl in Kajaani in the summer of 2005.
Three of the men were found guilty of assault, while another man was convicted for violation of the law banning the use of harmful objects or substances. The court stated that there was no evidence of the right of self-defence having pertained in the situation.
As for the young native-born Finns who had been involved in the incident, the court stated that no evidence of the alleged assault could be found.
However, two Finns who were found guilty of excessive self-defence, and three immigrants, were each ordered to pay EUR 200 to 600 in compensation for pain and suffering. The compensations are partly cancelled out. The two Finns were not fined for their involvement in the case.
The charges of all other Finns who had been involved in the incident were dropped.
The District Court said that there was not enough evidence to prove that the immigrants had been assaulted at the pizzeria by a group of hooligans last year. Moreover, the court regarded the accounts of the men of foreign origin as conflicting.
Furthermore, the court considered the reports of the Finns to be credible and to corroborate the other witnesses' own version of the chain of events.
The prosecutor does not intend to appeal the verdict. The defendants will have to decide in a week whether or not they will appeal.
Reportedly, there have been signs of some sort of friction between the Finns and the immigrants in Kajaani in recent years. Hence the outcome of the trial might have come as a surprise to some people. After all, of all the cities in Finland, Kajaani has the largest number of racially-motivated crimes in proportion to the number of foreign residents (see article).
The court hearing, held a month ago, saw the prosecutor present two different versions of what is alleged to have taken place at the pizzeria. Eventually he reached the conclusion that what occurred was not the racially-motivated attack on the pizzeria that was carried in the news at the time, but a brawl between immigrants and members of the local population that took place in the yard in front of the premises.
Three of the men were found guilty of assault, while another man was convicted for violation of the law banning the use of harmful objects or substances. The court stated that there was no evidence of the right of self-defence having pertained in the situation.
As for the young native-born Finns who had been involved in the incident, the court stated that no evidence of the alleged assault could be found.
However, two Finns who were found guilty of excessive self-defence, and three immigrants, were each ordered to pay EUR 200 to 600 in compensation for pain and suffering. The compensations are partly cancelled out. The two Finns were not fined for their involvement in the case.
The charges of all other Finns who had been involved in the incident were dropped.
The District Court said that there was not enough evidence to prove that the immigrants had been assaulted at the pizzeria by a group of hooligans last year. Moreover, the court regarded the accounts of the men of foreign origin as conflicting.
Furthermore, the court considered the reports of the Finns to be credible and to corroborate the other witnesses' own version of the chain of events.
The prosecutor does not intend to appeal the verdict. The defendants will have to decide in a week whether or not they will appeal.
Reportedly, there have been signs of some sort of friction between the Finns and the immigrants in Kajaani in recent years. Hence the outcome of the trial might have come as a surprise to some people. After all, of all the cities in Finland, Kajaani has the largest number of racially-motivated crimes in proportion to the number of foreign residents (see article).
The court hearing, held a month ago, saw the prosecutor present two different versions of what is alleged to have taken place at the pizzeria. Eventually he reached the conclusion that what occurred was not the racially-motivated attack on the pizzeria that was carried in the news at the time, but a brawl between immigrants and members of the local population that took place in the yard in front of the premises.
Helsingin Sanomat