Finland: Somali-born politician apologizes for faking racist hate crime

A Somali-born Social Democratic Party (SDP) politician in Finland has apologized for lying about kicking a passenger out of his taxi after the passenger allegedly hurled racist abuse at him.

Abdirahim Hussein, a Helsinki city councilor and taxi driver who has previously called Finland a racist country, has admitted that he lied when he wrote on Twitter that he forced a customer out his taxi for abusing him racially, Finnish broadcaster Yle reports.

“I apologize for my actions and for lying. As a decision-maker, it is my duty, to be honest. I depend on my voters’ trust and I have now broken that trust. I shall do everything I can to restore trust in my actions,” Hussein tweeted on Monday. 

The apology follows statements Hussein made on Twitter last week, where he described an incident in which he stopped the taxi along the highway to remove an abusive passenger who ‘behaved in a racist manner’. 

Hussein claimed that the abusive passenger asked what he was doing in Finland and told him to go back to Somalia. 

Not long after, the Somali-born SDP politician changed his story, claiming that he had actually left the racist passenger at a bus stop and not along the highway. As ar result, many began suspecting that he had faked the hate crime altogether. 

Upon further investigation into the incident by the taxi company Taksi Helsinki, it was found that Hussein’s story simply did not match up with the GPS data from the taxi.

“We investigated the course of events and talked to Hussein. Then it emerged that his story did not match and that no one was left by the side of the road,” says Jari Kantonen, Taksi Helsinki’s CEO. 

Eventually, Hussein would go on to admit that the passenger was never removed. He told Yle that lied about the incident to start a discussion about the harassment that taxi drivers face. 

Council group chair Eveliina Heinäluoma addressed the incident in a statement on Twitter.

“I am extremely disappointed in the actions of our council group member Husu. A person in a position of responsibility should act with the dignity required of the position. We will discuss the matter in our next council group meeting,” Heinäluoma wrote.

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