Finland charges three with racist 'terrorist crime'

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Finnish prosecutors on Thursday indicted three men on the charge of "terrorist crime", saying they were suspected of preparing to instigate armed conflict between ethnic groups.

"The defendants are suspected of having, due to racist beliefs, prepared an armed conflict between ethnic groups in which people were to be killed and social structures undermined through attacks in which self-made weapons would be used," the prosecution authority said.

It said in a statement that they had found in an investigation that the suspects had constructed and trained themselves to use weapons, although they had not got as far as preparing a concrete act.

The suspects, one of whom is in custody, have contested most of the charges, the agency said without elaborating.

The three are suspected of having formed a right-wing extremist group and their weapons were mainly 3D-printed, police had said earlier.

(Reporting by Anna Ringstrom; Editing by Hugh Lawson)