A Finnish man, Jimi Joonas Karttunen, who was assaulted by neo-Nazis from the Finnish Resistance Movement (FRM) on Saturday 10 September has died of his injuries, the Finnish investigative journalism website Kaivuri reported on 17 September.
The news was broken by his father, Kauko-Vesa Karttunen, on Facebook and the identity of the man has since been confirmed by other sources, including an old school friend with whom Kaivuri spoke. The assault on Karttunen, 28, occurred during a demonstration by FRM in the centre of Helsinki. Karttunen was attacked from behind by members of FRM after expressing his opposition to the protest and hit his head as he fell on the ground.
Karttunen was taken to hospital after the attack with severe head trauma and remained in intensive care for several days. He was sent home on Thursday but began to suffer from intense headaches again on Friday and called the emergency services. When they arrived he had already lost consciousness and was proclaimed dead at 22.00.
FRM released a video of Karttunen lying on the ground next to a pool of blood, and in an accompanying text, said they had to “discipline” some people who challenged them, effectively confessing that members of the group were behind the assault. Several pictures connected to the article show known members of the organisation, indicating who was present. The anti-fascist network Varis has put names to some of them, including several who have a record of racist, homophobic and political violence. The police have been reluctant to make any statement but have confirmed that they are investigating.
One line of enquiry might encompass the promotion of far-right violence by Kai Murros, a Finnish radical nationalist writer and advocate of a peculiar synthesis of Maoism and racial nationalism, encompassing pogroms against Jews in a Nazi version of Pol Pot’s Cambodia. Murros, 47, the author of National Revolution And How to Do It in a Modern Society, openly incited violence when he spoke at a meeting of Jeremy Bedford-Turner’s London Forum on 15 October 2015.
“Make it absolutely clear that there are no laws, no agreements, no treaties … that you would not break in order to secure the future of the English people,” Murros told his audience.
“The change must be brought from the outside and it must be brought by force. For this historic task an entirely new type of shock troops should be created: the nationalist Khmer Noir commandos, raised from the ranks of the working class. Clad in black hoodies, covering their faces with black and white chequered scarves, the young fanatics of the movement will storm the universities, break into classrooms and tear the academics down from their podiums.
“The red academics will be forced to admit their crimes against the English people in mass rallies. They will publicly confess how they have always conspired against the English people, how they have always hated the English people, and how they have always fantasised about hurting the English people. After this the red academics will be forced to face the wrath of the masses.
“The parasite intellectuals will be forced at all times to carry signs declaring their evil schemes against the English people.
“… Nationalist cultural revolution requires that you ignite an inferno of rage in the English people.”
The presence of Murros in the UK clearly caused concern because a few days after the meeting Searchlight was approached by the Home Office, keen to find out what he had said. We were happy to oblige.
A transcript of his speech is available from “National Vanguard”, although Searchlight cannot guarantee its accuracy.
