The National Police Board, represented by attorney Markku Fredman , has filed legal action against the Nordic Resistance Movement in the District Court of Pirkanmaa, demanding the disbandment of the movement.
The National Police Board will not comment on the matter while the legal proceedings are pending. The grounds for bringing legal action were announced in December.
“We consider the activities of the Nordic Resistance Movement to be contrary to law and good conduct in substance, so there are strong grounds for taking legal action and seeking a court ruling to disband the operation,” said National Police Commissioner Seppo Kolehmainen in a press release on 22 December 2016.
According to the Associations Act, the purpose of an association may not be contrary to law or good conduct. The regulation also applies when a group of people has not been registered as an association but operates in the manner of an association, i.e. it has, for example, ideological goals and established practices. The Nordic Resistance Movement is considered to be an unregistered association with ideologically based operations of the kind mentioned above.
Regulations applying to associations cannot be evaded by not registering the association, and a group of people that can be viewed as forming an association cannot be artificially protected by the right of association if its activities are substantially contrary to the law and good conduct.
“We must not give way to violent and openly racist organisations within Finnish society,” Seppo Kolehmainen emphasised.
