People gathered outside Pasila Police Station in Helsinki to voice their support to Ilja Janitskin, the founder and frontman of MV-Lehti.
Ilja Janitskin, the founder and frontman of MV-Lehti, was detained on suspicion of a slew of offences after a detention hearing held behind closed doors at Pasila Police Station in Helsinki on Tuesday.
Janitskin was arrested in Andorra last August and extradited to Finland in mid-April.
The District Court of Helsinki listed in its press release a total of 12 criminal offences as grounds for the detention, including aggravated ethnic agitation, aggravated defamation, menace, lottery offence, money collection offence, secrecy offence and copyright offence.
All of the accusations have been rejected by Janitskin.
“The pre-trial investigation will continue as usual, and Janitskin will continue to be interrogated on suspicion of the offences,” tells Harri Saaristola, a chief superintendent at the Helsinki Police Department.
Established in late 2014, MV-Lehti gained both notoriety and popularity by inciting hate speech online after scores of asylum seekers began to arrive at the borders of Europe and Finland in mid-2015. The online newspaper recorded roughly 18 million visits in January, 2016, according to an analysis conducted by Helsingin Sanomat.
Janitskin announced he has severed his ties with the online publication on 10 January.
“I’ve had enough of the patriotic scene, the antics. People don’t know how to take care of things, there are huge conflicts, and I have to listen to the horrible drivelling 24/7,” he explained in a phone interview with Helsingin Sanomat in February.
Aleksi Teivainen – HT Photo: Antti Aimo-Koivisto – Lehtikuva Source: Uusi Suomi
