Helsinki District Court on Wednesday handed a man a 30-day jail sentence, after finding him guilty of attacking MP and former cabinet minister Krista Kiuru (SDP) in a downtown park on a mid-December afternoon last year.
The assault took place on 14 December in Kaisaniemi Park, as Kiuru was walking to pick up her child from daycare, police said.
The court issued its decision in the case on Wednesday morning.
According to testimony, the 35-year-old defendant said he had not recognised his target as a politician before attacking her.
The defendant was not present during the trial, but admitted to his lawyer that he had assaulted Kiuru.
"He is very sorry. He is among the weakest in society. He has used amphetamines and alpha-PVP," the defendant's lawyer, Raine Sorsa, said, referring to a street drug similar to bath salts.
"He began from a bad starting point, and the end result was this," Sorsa said. "There is no way to defend [his actions]."
"I hope this will be over soon," Kiuru said as she arrived at the courthouse on Wednesday morning.
Kiuru testified that her face was bruised and swollen after the assault, adding that she was walking through the park, on the way to pick up her child from daycare when the man approached her.
She said as her assailant got closer, his body language suggested that he was experiencing some "serious issues".
"But, I couldn't have guessed that he'd get violent," she told the court.
After that, she said, the man attacked her.
"[The defendant] reached out and punched me between the eyes. His hand struck my right eyebrow," Kiuru testified.
"I had a headache for weeks after the incident," she said.
The prosecutor, Miska Kuoppamäki, said the MP's injuries could have been much more serious, noting that striking a person's head can potentially cause severe injury.
"Violence directed at a random passerby makes the attack even more reprehensible," Kuoppamäki told the court.
The prosecution had demanded that the defendant serve an unconditional jail sentence of at least 60 days up to a maximum of 90 days.
Meanwhile, the defence said that a fine would be the appropriate sentence in the case.
The district court sentenced the man to 30 days in jail, and ordered him to pay Kiuru 600 euros in damages.
The court said it considered the defendant's past convictions for violent crimes as an aggravating factor in the case. He also has shoplifting, theft and drug offence convictions.
Kiuru held a string of cabinet posts between 2011 and 2015, including Minister of Family Affairs and Social Services and Minister of Education.
