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Home NATIONAL30 held for right wing violence in Jyväskylä
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Sun, 02 Aug, 2015 12:04:12 AM
FTimes-STT-Xinhua Report, Aug 2
 
Finnish Resistance Movement organized a violent demonstration in Jyväskylä on Saturday, August 1st 2015. Photo – Str / Lehtikuva.
The police on Saturday had to use force to calm down a demonstration by the right wing group Finnish Resistance Movement in the town of Jyväskylä, central Finland.
 
The demonstrators entered a department store and injured several people.
 
A local police representative said rushing into the department store appeared to have been ordered within the group. The preceding demonstration had been peaceful.
 
Three people were beaten up during the far-right demonstration, news agency STT reported quoting the police. 
 
The protest turned violent on Saturday afternoon when protesters began behaving aggressively to bystanders and prevented the police from performing their duty. 
 
“It seems clear that the demonstrators chose to maltreat a person who at least to part of the crowd was known already. When they started to assault, two of the person’s entourage also got assaulted,” said Detective Chief Inspector Mikko Porvali.
 
The assault took place, according to an eyewitness who was interviewed by STT, in the downstairs hallway of the Sokos department store.
 
According to the police, one victim’s injuries were very mild, and did not require treatment. The other two were mainly in pain from cuts and bruises. 
 
Porvali stated that a little more than 10 people were suspected of involvement in the assaults.
 
“It is not clear that the whole group took part in these crimes, so they will be released as and when it is possible,” Porvali said. The police estimate that about 40 people took part in the demonstration.
 
Photo – Str / Lehtikuva.
Interior Minister Petteri Orpo said the events in Jyväskylä were serious and needed to be condemned.
 
“This is an indication of the fact that extremist movements are rising also in Finland and their surveillance has to be increased,” Orpo told a Finnish language daily, Helsingin Sanomat.
 
The national broadcaster Yle in its news report described the Finnish Resistance Movement as “an organisation that supports white race supremacy and has a national socialist ideology”.
 
People associated with the organisation have been convicted in recent years for violence including an attack against a gay pride march in Helsinki some years ago and a stabbing at a book launch in Jyvaskyla.
 
Security Police spokesman Rantala said the organisation has only some tens of members, but it has intense ties with comparable movements in other Nordic countries.
 
The Resistance Movement was last in the news in June when Member of Parliament Olli Immonen attended one of its events. His party, the Finns Party, said Immonen had attended “as a private person”.
 
Last week Immonen caused a major national reaction in Finland following his statement on his Facebook account describing multiculturalism as “nightmare”.
 
The violence in Jyväskylä took place four days after thousands of people demonstrated in several Finnish cities against racism.
 
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