Finnish pacifist denied asylum in Belgium

by: Alice Hunt

Jussi Hermaja, Finnish pacifist.
PHOTO: for Mother Earth ,

Belgium: Finnish native Jussi Hermaja’s request for asylum was rejected by Belgium’s high court, the Raad van State, on 4 March due to the complex political implications of such a request.

Hermaja, left Finland in October 2001 to escape a 197-day jail sentence for his refusal to perform alternative service.

Hermaja applied for asylum in Belgium because that nation does not have a conscription policy, nor does it consider refusal to perform military service a crime. Belgium is unusual in that it even recognises EU-nation members as potential asylum seekers.

But, after a lengthy court process, Hermaja was not granted such status.

The Court rejected his appeal because, in its opinion, the Finnish law is not discriminatory and the disparity between the length of civil service and the length of military service is not excessive. In Finland, military service is 180 days, while civilian service is 395 days.

“In Finland the civil service is not an equal alternative for military service,” Hermaja said in a statement on the For Mother Earth website. “The civil service is, in fact, a punishment for every civil servant for using the constitutional right of thought and freedom of conscience.”

According to the Belgian Supreme Administrative Court, “It is not the court's task to choose between political, ideological, philosophical or ethical opinions,” reported in the Scandinavian newspaper Helsingin Sanomat. The court can only make decisions of a technical nature.

Since refusal to perform military service in not a crime in Belgium, Finland’s government will not ask the Belgian government to extradite Hermaja back to his native country. The Finnish government could only do so if refusal to perform military service was a crime in both Belgium and Finland.

Alternative service was introduced in Finland in 1931. The only accepted total exemptions from conscription in Finland are for medical reasons or religious belief. Jehovah’s Witnesses, for example, are exempt from duty.

Source: Case Hermaja