Finland Times

The man posted three photos to Facebook at the beginning of last year, where he appears alongside a dead ISIS fighter's head.

“Photos of dead enemy soldiers are derogatory, especially in this case, where the defendant had his foot on a dead enemy's head,” said Judge Aulikki Stenbäck.

The 29-year-old man was fighting against ISIS in 2014-2015 and belonged to a paramilitary group called Kataeb Jund al-Imam, or the “The Imams' Soldiers' Battalions”.

The group works with the assent and support of the Iraqi government.

The prosecutor demanded a two-year sentence for the man. He said that Finland is committed to international agreements about what is permitted and prohibited during warfare.

“The deed is a war crime,” said prosecutor Juha-Mikko Hämäläinen in a statement.

According to him, the maximum penalty for war crimes is life imprisonment in Finland.

The enemy soldier has been identified based on the images, and his identity was published after the images were posted.

The photos were posted to the public profile of the convict, which was available for anyone to see.

The convict admitted that he had taken the photos and posted to Facebook on his public profile.

He, however, denied having committed any war crime.

According to him, the head was that of an ISIS fighter which had been mutilated in a suicide attack.

“The photos were taken with the head, so that they might comfort the families of victims [of the enemy],” said the convict at the trial.

The accused has been in custody since November.

Defense lawyer Ari Nieminen said in court that the act was no more than a mild war crime.

He stressed that ISIS was the first group to take pictures alongside the heads of their enemies.