The man suspected of a racist stabbing in Oulu last year has been found to be not criminally responsible for his actions at the time of the stabbing, after a psychiatric assessment.
The suspect, who was born in 2001, has admitted stabbing an Upper Secondary school student of foreign background on 9 September.
He stabbed the victim four times in the neck and upper body, but denies the attack had a racist motive.
The victim sustained life-threatening injuries, but survived thanks to receiving prompt treatment. The attack took place very close to Oulu’s University Hospital.
Court proceedings began late last year, but in December the judge ordered a psychiatric evaluation of the suspect while also delivering an interim verdict that the suspect had perpetrated the attack, but did not take a stance on the criminal offences that may have been committed.
The result of the psychiatric assessment was released on Wednesday when proceedings started again in Oulu District Court.
In that assessment, doctors from the Institute of Health and Welfare (THL) say that the man was not criminally responsible at the time of the attack, as he did not understand his actions or their consequences.
The prosecutor had demanded jail time on a charge of attempted manslaughter, but due to the psychiatric assessment the man cannot now be punished for the crime.
He is currently held against his will in a psychiatric unit.
Verdict next week
The court is due to give a verdict in the case next week. In that verdict, the court has to take a view on the motive and criminal offences committed.
Prosecutors and police have argued that there was a racist motive for the attack, but the suspect denies that.
Defence lawyers say that their client stabbed the student because there had been some kind of staring immediately before the attack. The man claims that he flew into a rage and attacked the boy without considering his actions.
The defence claims that the only evidence for a racist motive is that the man held opinions critical of immigration. According to the defence, that was not the reason for the stabbing, however.
Spate of racist attacks
The stabbing was the third suspected racist attack within a short space of time in the city. First a known Nazi stabbed two children in a shopping centre.
He was found guilty, but was spared a prison sentence after psychiatrists found he did not understand his actions and mandated involuntary treatment at a mental health facility.
A week after that attack, a 15-year-old travelled to the same shopping centre and stabbed a man of foreign background.
The court ruled that he was guilty of attempted manslaughter but acquitted of attempted murder, found not to be criminally responsible for his actions, and also undertook involuntary psychiatric treatment.