HELSINKI, May 24 (Xinhua) -- Pirkanmaa District Court of Finland on Wednesday dismissed the charges against Iraqi twin brothers, who were suspected of participation in a massacre in Iraq in 2014, Finnish media reported.
The two men, now in their mid-20s, were arrested in December 2015, a few months after arriving as asylum seekers in Finland. Since then, they have been investigated on suspicion of taking part in executing 11 prisoners in June 2014 as members of the so-called Islamic State militant group.
During the trial starting in December 2016, defense lawyers argued that the key evidence, images from an IS propaganda video, was unreliable, because it was difficult to identify the persons shown on the video. In addition, the lawyers said that the authenticity of the Iraqi documents was doubtful, according to Finnish national broadcaster Yle.
The court, therefore, believed that the evidence was not enough for a conviction, and found the twins innocent on all charges and freed them with immediate effect.
The state prosecutor Tom Laitinen had demanded to give life sentences to both of the defendants for terrorism-related murder and war crimes. He told Yle on Wednesday that prosecutors are considering whether it is needed to appeal against the verdict to a higher court.
