In Estonia, a man threatens to kill politicians and their families, but he will face no consequences 0 13

At the end of December, it was reported that an Estonian man, who gained fame years ago in Helsinki as a kung-fu mushroom seller, began threatening politicians Mart and Martin Helme, as well as Varro Vooglaid, on his Facebook page. "I will personally shoot the Helme family! I give you my word!" the man stated in a video message. Additionally, he threatened to cut Varro Vooglaid's throat.

In the news program "Reporter" on Kanal 2, both Varro Vooglaid and Mart Helme stated that they had already sent a message to the cyber police but had not received a response. Mart Helme then said that he was not afraid for his life, but acknowledged: "Although this character, as some people on social media found out by studying his past, has been in prison and fought with Finnish police, and he has, so to speak, a dossier. That is, it seems to be a person whose level of threat is higher than that of a random passerby on the street."

If just a few days ago the police commented that no case had been initiated yet and that the video was under review, it has now become known that no investigation will be initiated.

"No one intends to do anything; we will have to think for ourselves about how to protect our family."

Monika Helme also reported on her Facebook page that she received an unhelpful response from the police. "We received a response from the Estonian police that they do not see any reason to initiate a case regarding this particularly rude, cruel, and direct death threat made against our family and Varro Vooglaid," she writes. "The cyber police also confirmed that they cannot do anything; a letter has been sent to META, and they only advised: pass a hate speech law if you want the police to be able to do something in such cases. It is clear that no one intends to do anything; we will have to think about how we will cope with protecting our family. When a father or mother of someone's children ends up in a coffin, there will only be gloating over it."

Helme states that there is nothing left but to live on with the awareness that one must live while life is given, until some similar madman takes it away. "And with the awareness that until then, the institutions that are supposed to ensure the safety of the Estonian people will find any formal reasons not to take action in our case," she adds.

Pille Vilu, head of the personal crimes investigation group of the Lääne-Harju police department, explained that a death threat or threat of harm is punishable only if there is a real danger of the threat being carried out. "Publishing such videos on social media is certainly unacceptable behavior, but based on the information available at the moment, we have no reason to believe that the threats are intended to be carried out, and therefore the police did not initiate proceedings regarding this video. Of course, if new information arises, we are always ready to reconsider this decision."

"If someone feels threatened online or in a personal conversation, it is essential to report this to the police. The police always assess the situation and the seriousness of the threats and respond as necessary," she adds. "The author of this post is in Finland. We have already informed our colleagues there about this publication so they can contact the author, and we have also reached out to META requesting the removal of this message from social media.