Migrant Tales (MT) insight: In mid-March, MT published a letter from a Pakistani family. The victim, the father of the family, was brutally attacked on February 23 by three white Finnish youths. The victim and his wife believe that what happened was a hate crime. The police disagree. According to the wife, the police called her the following day after the Pakistani migrant was attacked and stated that it was not a hate crime because “the suspects were intoxicated.”
I met the family again at the end of last month at noon at the hospital. It was so lovely to see them together: the wife, baby, and their four-year-old daughter in the company of their father, who was recovering and in much better condition since the last time I saw him.
Since I have two granddaughters, I started a conversation with the eldest daughter about what cartoons she likes to watch. “PJ Masks and Benny and Holly!” she replied without hesitation.
I asked the wife and her husband, if they wished, to write a letter about how their lives had changed after February 23.
Below is the letter that also includes their feelings about charging the three white Finnish youths of attempted murder.
What was surprising in the police statement was that the charges had been changed from manslaughter to attempted murder.
It will be interesting to see how they pin murder charges on the three youths. The only matter that was apparently stolen from the victim was his cellphone.
________________
Dear Finland,
It is difficult to put into words how this event had changed my family’s life. Change is a small word to describe what happened.
The terrible incident that caused by husband to almost die after he was attacked by three youths has made us extremely uncertain about life and people. We moved to Finland from Pakistan so we could live in a secure country. We did not find security but the total opposite of it.
My [four-year-old] daughter asked me many times when my husband was in the hospital when her father will come home. She missed her father so much. She asked many times what had happened to her father. My daughter hears about the topic a lot when I speak on the phone. At the hospital she would burst into tears every time the nurses injected her father.
My husband feels better and returned to our new home. We moved out of our old apartment in Vantaa because it brought all of us terrible memories and we did not feel safe there.
The attackers used a knife, ax and pointed object to stab and hit the victim. When stabbing the calf muscle, the suspect did not remove the knife but slashed part of the leg in the process. Without getting into more detail, it took four hours to remove the victim’s stitches. The violence of the crime raises questions. Attempted murder? Hate crime? At least no longer manslaughter. Photo: Enrique Tessieri.
The bloodstains of the victim were on the snow 20 days after the attack. Source: Helsinki Times.
My husband said that if anyone has hate in his heart and consumes drugs and alcohol, “intoxication” should not be an excuse for committing a hate crime.
Continue reading “To Finland from a Pakistani family: A second letter about hate crime*”
