The East Finland Court of Appeal upheld his terrorism convictions but cut two years off the prison term, ruling that the conditions surrounding the offences resembled situations where grounds for exemption from liability normally apply.

A Finnish appellate court has reduced Simon Ekpa’s prison sentence for terrorism offences from six years to four, while upholding his conviction.
The East Finland Court of Appeal delivered judgment on Thursday, 15 October 2026, affirming the Päijät-Häme District Court’s finding that Mr Ekpa participated in the activities of a terrorist group and publicly incited a crime with terrorist intent, Premium Times reported, citing Finnish broadcaster Yle.

The offences relate to his campaign for an independent Biafra in southeastern Nigeria.

The district court had sentenced him to six years in prison on 1 September 2025. In a statement on the ruling, the Court of Appeal said Mr Ekpa was also convicted at first instance of aggravated tax fraud and of violating Finland’s Attorneys Act, but that those two convictions were not under review at the appellate stage.

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The appellate court upheld the same terrorism convictions, but commuted the sentence by two years, to four. It cited Chapter 6, Section 8(1), paragraph 4 of Finland’s Criminal Code, holding that the offences were committed under conditions that closely resembled the circumstances in which grounds for exemption from liability — civil war, self-defence and a state of necessity — normally apply.

Court rejects civil war claim

The reduction followed an argument Mr Ekpa advanced on appeal: that southeastern Nigeria was experiencing a non-international armed conflict, and that international humanitarian law, rather than Finnish terrorism legislation, should govern his conduct.

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He presented new evidence on the organisation of the armed groups, their weapons and the Nigerian government’s military operations.
The court tested that claim against the intensity of the fighting, drawing comparisons with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia’s assessments of the Balkan wars at the turn of the millennium. It acknowledged that evidence of Nigerian forces using heavy weaponry, including assault tanks and combat helicopters, weighed in favour of a civil war, and that the groups led by Mr Ekpa were organised to a degree, with unified combat equipment and armament largely limited to conventional assault and machine guns.

In its overall assessment, however, the court ruled that the violence did not reach the threshold required under international case law. The battles, it said, were “relatively sparse individual attacks” on police stations and road checkpoints, and it could not be established that the forces led by Mr Ekpa were capable of military operations requiring strategic planning that would have produced prolonged, continuous fighting.

It also noted that no significant civilian displacement had been reported from the affected areas.

According to the indictment accepted by the district court, Mr Ekpa acted from Lahti, in Finland, as the supreme commander of several armed groups operating in southeastern Nigeria, whose aim was to establish an independent Biafra. The groups’ members carried out attacks on Nigerian police stations, government buildings and military roadblocks between August 2021 and November 2024.

Both sides appealed

Neither side was satisfied with the district court’s sentence. Mr Ekpa appealed against both conviction and punishment, while the prosecutor also appealed, seeking a longer term than the six years imposed. Yle reported the prosecution had argued the district court’s sentence was too lenient for the offences.

Mr Ekpa, 41, has been in custody since November 2024. He moved to Finland from Nigeria in 2007 as an athlete and later entered local politics in Lahti with the National Coalition Party, Finland’s centre-right party. He has denied the charges throughout.

The judgment was delivered by Judges Aki Rasilainen and Antti Santaranta, with assistant Judge Johanna Puukka. The case number is R 17/2025/918.
The ruling is not final. Mr Ekpa or the prosecution may seek permission to appeal to Finland’s Supreme Court.