Finnish patriots target foreign ‘sex tourists’

The group’s recent video, in which they claimed Finland to be overrun by “sex tourists” has arrived amidst a grooming gang scandal which has implicated immigrants and asylum-seekers from the Middle East.

The Finnish police and the National Prosecutor General’s Office are investigating whether the new Soldiers of Odin video, in which they declare a hunt for rapists and pedophiles, constitutes hate speech and instigation to violence, the Finnish daily newspaper Hufvudstadsbladet reported.

In the video, which has both English and Arabic subtitles, the group claims that it has created false profiles on social media, posing as young girls. With the help of the profiles, the group seeks to reveal men in search of sexual contact with young girls on the web.

The video, which has since been deleted from both Facebook and Vimeo, shows a group of masked men armed with bats and chains marching towards the camera amid winter darkness, accompanied by heavy metal music.

The speaker of the group says Finland has been invaded by “sex tourists” and the authorities “do nothing”. He says the people themselves should protect their children. The Soldiers of Odin also stated that half of all sexual propositions to underage girls came from Arabs. However, the group stressed that the hunt was open to ensnare “domestic pedophiles and rapists of all colors” without racial distinction.

“We guarantee you that a date with us will be memorable. And hey, don’t worry, we won’t call the police”, the masked man says in the video, available on Soldiers of Odin founder Mika Ranta’s page on the Russian social network Vkontakte.

According to criminal commissioner Pekka Hätönen, the new video by the Soldiers of Odin can be classified as an instigation to hatred toward ethnic groups.