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Päijät-Häme District Court has sentenced Simon Ekpa to six years in prison after finding him guilty of terrorism-related charges, YLe, a Finland local newspaper reports.
The court ruled that Ekpa had participated in a terrorist organisation and had publicly incited crimes for terrorist purposes.
The charges relate to Ekpa’s alleged activities aimed at re-establishing an independent state in the Biafra region of southeastern Nigeria, which was briefly independent in the late 1960s.
In its verdict, the court said that Ekpa had used his significant social media following to stoke tensions in the Biafra region between August 2021 and November 2024.
It added that Ekpa was an influential member of a Biafran separatist movement, which established armed groups aimed at bringing about Biafran independence by force.
The district court’s ruling further noted that Ekpa had supplied these groups with weapons, explosives, and ammunition through his network of contacts in the region, and he was also found to have encouraged his followers on social media platform X to commit crimes in Nigeria.
Ekpa, a long-term resident of Lahti and one-time local councillor, committed these crimes from the Finnish city, the verdict added, meaning the Finnish court had jurisdiction in the case.
Ekpa had denied all the charges in court. Born in Biafra, he moved to Finland in 2007 as an athlete.
The court on Monday also convicted him of aggravated tax fraud.
The district court’s verdict is not final, meaning it can be appealed to a higher court.
In November 2024, the Finnish government arrested Mr Ekpa on suspicion of terror-related activities, including incitement to violence and terrorism financing.
He was accused of using social media to incite violence and causing unrest in the South-east region, as part of his secessionist agitation for Biafra.
According to the prosecutors who are demanding a six-year prison sentence for Mr. Ekpa, his activities may constitute terrorism under Finnish law.
During interrogations, Mr. Ekpa denied ordering weapons for pro-Biafra groups and other allegations against him.
