One of the two Iraqi asylum seekers, who was shot at twice with an air rifle by a white Finnish suspect Friday* in the Kemi neighborhood of Syväkangas, will file charges.
Due to language problems, a friend of the victim, who spoke better English than the victim, spoke to Migrant Tales. The victim was in the same room as the man who spoke to Migrant Tales by phone.
“My friend went today [1pm] to the police and they asked if he wanted to press charges,” the victim’s friend said. “He said yes. They asked how much money he’d be demanding from the suspect but he said he did not know and had to speak to a lawyer first.”
Just like on Saturday after the incident, the victim had to be accompanied home because there were three Soldiers of Odin members nearby that cussed at him.
“At the police station there were three Soldiers of Odin members waiting outside,” he said. “I don’t know what they want to do if they want to beat him up or kill him.”
The victim’s friend said that the police went to speak to the vigilante gang members.
“My friend says that every time he goes out of his home, the Soldiers of Odin follow him around,” he continued. “The police didn’t offer him any protection [from such gangs]. They just told him to call them if they bother him.”
If the latter is true, why aren’t the police doing anything to protect the victim and why isn’t there an outcry in the Finnish media about the actions of the vigilante gang? Why are they allowed to harass and intimidate the asylum seeker?
On Saturday, a white nearly 70-year-old Finnish man shot at two Iraqi asylum seekers in the northern Finnish city of Kemi. The victims weren’t hurt by the incident and called the police.
The friend said in the first story that the young Iraqi asylum seeker’s left middle finger was broken two months ago by some Soldiers of Odin members at the Kemi harbor.
“My friend went to the police to report what happened but he has not heard from them since then,” he said.
*Migrant Tales had published in an earlier story that the shooting took place on Saturday and that the suspect was 50-55 years old.