A prosecutor in Oulu has filed attempted murder charges in relation to the stabbing of a high school student of immigrant background in the city in September.
The case will be heard in Oulu District Court on 16 December.
The victim suffered life-threatening injuries in the attack, which happened on a pedestrian path in broad daylight near a school in the Kastelli neighbourhood.
A 23-year-old man was remanded into custody two days after the attack, having admitted to police he caused the injuries to the victim.
Although investigating officers initially stated that there was no reason to suspect a racial motive behind the stabbing, they said at the beginning of last month that the suspect had "some degree of longer-term hostile attitudes" towards foreigners.
"There were indications of this following the questioning of an external witness and an expert. For this reason, the incident has been classified as a hate crime," a police press release said at the time.
In filing the charges on Wednesday, District Prosecutor Eeva-Maria Pohjola noted that the attack had a racist motive.
The incident marked the third separate stabbing attack on a person of foreign background in Oulu in the space of just a few months.
Far-right activist Sebastian Lämsä is on trial for attacking two foreign background children at the Valkea shopping centre in the city in June. A few days later, a 15-year-old is suspected of stabbing a man of foreign background in the same shopping centre in what police believe was a "copycat" attack. The trial in that case began earlier this week.
