Finland: Muslim raping a ten-year-old girl case Ruling goes against public sense of justice

Tapani also estimates that the sentence handed to the offender would have been one to two years longer if he had also been found guilty of aggravated rape.

District Prosecutor Leena Koivuniemi, however, says she is satisfied with the ruling delivered by the Turku Court of Appeal, admitting that it was debatable whether sufficient evidence of aggravated rape had been produced.

“I’m able to accept that the court rejected the charge [of aggravated rape],” she tells Helsingin Sanomat.

The case has also prompted a reaction from several policy makers.

Members of the Parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee, for example, have voiced their support for calls to revise the legislation in a way that the case of the ten-year-old girl would meet the essential elements of rape, reports YLE.

“I’m in favour of revising the criminal code in a way that a victim’s lack of consent is enough to meet the essential elements of rape. The current law requires that violence or the threat of violence is used,” says Sanna Marin (SDP).

Kari Tolvanen (NCP), the chairperson of the Legal Affairs Committee, states to the public broadcasting company that the criminal code should be revised to raise the minimum punishment for child sexual abuse from one to two years in prison.

“The legislative change would raise punishments for aggravated sex crimes against children across the board, which in my mind would be justifiable due to the vulnerability of children even if the act didn’t meet the essential elements of rape,” explained Tolvanen.