One case in particular that took place in Teuva on June 6 is still under investigation, and there is no indication when those guilty will face charges. The case involves a Muslim insulted and chased by some townspeople forcing his car off the road into a ditch and assaulted.
If you speak to the victim, whose name is Fares A-O, there is an abundance of evidence that shows that one clear bias motive was his ethnic background.
Here is a simple forumula to determine a hate crime:
Tejuka, a Teuva newspaper, published in June a spread and an editorial about what happened to Fares.
Writes Tejuka: “…soon [the attackers] forced [Fares] on the ground and started to rough him up by hitting and kicking him. Someone held Fares in a chokehold while others continued to hit him. Fares could no longer breathe. Somebody yelled: ‘Kill that mamu (a derogatory term for migrant)!”
Fares ended up taken to the Seinjäjoki and later to the hospital in Vaasa where they conducted tests and treated his wounds.
While what happened in Teuva is a hate crime case, it is also one of the worse to come to public light this year.
Indeed, the police can give a million excuses why this particular case is taking such a long time to investigate. One of these could even be the Covid pandemic, but the police officer in charge of the investigation did not mention it as a reason.
It is clear that a person that goes through such a traumatic event wants justice to move swiftly as opposed to slowly. The incident happened in June, or five months ago.
Apart from dealing with one’s trauma of what happened, Fares said that one of the most challenging matters was the slow pace of the investigation.