The Greens party legal officer was escorted from a plane at Helsinki Airport after she refused to sit down, in protest of a fellow passenger’s deportation.
Police at Helsinki Airport removed Aino Pennanen, the legal officer of Finland’s Greens party, from a plane for refusing to be seated. Pennanen said she was protesting the deportation of a fellow passenger.
Police cited Pennanen for causing an aviation misdemeanour but she is not suspected of having committed a crime.
Pennanen broadcast live video of her protest on Facebook as it unfolded on Tuesday. The plane’s departure was delayed by about ten minutes.
In the video, the Greens’ legal officer announced that she was refusing to follow the instructions of flight attendants after she noticed that another passenger was being forcibly repatriated.
Pennanen told Helsingin Sanomat that she had not planned the airplane protest in advance, and that she did not know to which country the deportee was being taken.
“We have deep-rooted problems in our system. That is why I wanted to stand up and help that person. It was not about a flight it is a problem in our justice system,” she told the paper.
Source: YLE
