A terror group plotted to assassinate the former Finnish PM (Picture: AP)
A far-right terror group plotted to kill former Finnish prime minister Sanna Marin and start a race war after using a 3D printer to make their own firearms, a court heard.
Four men are on trial in Lahti, near Helsinki, facing charges related to firearms possession and planning a terrorist act.
Police say the men believed in ‘accelerationism’- a far-right ideology which seeks to use acts of violence to hasten the collapse of democratic society and replace it with an authoritarian, etho-nationalist state.
The plot was tied to a wave of hate killings which took place in the US in recent years, including a shooting in Buffalo in 2022 in which ten black people were killed.
The group 3D printed their own firearms in order to carry out the attack (Picture: Getty)
A court heard how the men allegedly created firearms using 3D printers to carry out their acts of terror. Raids on their properties revealed a list of potential targets which included politicians, minority groups and anti-fascist activists.
Among them was then-prime minister Marin, who they discussed killing while she spoke at an event in Lahti last year.
One of the suspects later said during questioning: ‘The FGC-9 gun was within reach, and I could have reached the Lahti market by car in less than 10 minutes.
‘At the same time, I talked about these things on Telegram, that there would be a theoretical possibility to attempt a political murder.’
The FGC-9 is 3D-printable semiautomatic pistol calibre carbine designed specifically to avoid the use of regulated firearms parts in its construction, allowing it to be built in countries with strict gun control.
However, when discussing their motives, the defendant claimed the fact they did not go through with the assassination was proof they were not serious about committing a terrorist plot.
They said: ‘I’m openly ethno-nationalist, I know what it leads to when there are too many ethnicities in the same space.
They hoped the killing would start a race war (Picture: Shutterstock)
‘Those ethnicities start to pursue their own interests as a group and that doesn’t lead to anything good for the Finns. However, I had no plans to shoot people or anything.’
Other targets on their list included the country’s former Green Party leader Maria Ohisalo, who served as interior minister between 2019 and 2021.
Also included were the offices of the Left Alliance socialist party, an alternative nightclub in the city of Tampere, and a volunteer-run book store and vegan café.
When questioned about their targets, they claimed those listed were ‘enemies of nationalists’
Detective Inspector Tuomas Kuure told Finnish broadcaster YLE that terms linked with accelerationism such as ‘race war’ and ‘incitement’ were used by the suspects in their messages.
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