Ekpa was found guilty of terrorism-related charges last year by the Päijät-Häme District Court in Finland.
By Kehinde Okeowo
A little reprieve came the way of Biafran separatist leader Simon Ekpa—who had earlier been sentenced to six years—as a Finnish appeal court recently cut down his prison term to four years.
Ekpa was found guilty of terrorism-related charges last year by the Päijät-Häme District Court in Finland. The charges were related to Ekpa’s alleged activities aimed at re-establishing an independent state of Biafra in south-eastern Nigeria.
The development was confirmed on Thursday in a story published by Finnish news outlet Yle.
In 2025, the Finnish district court agreed that Ekpa had used his significant social media following to stoke tensions in the region between August 2021 and November 2024, and consequently sentenced him to six years in jail.
Ekpa subsequently appealed against the ruling, seeking to have his conviction and sentence overturned.
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The prosecutor in the case had also appealed against the district court’s decision, arguing that the prison sentence did not reflect the seriousness of Ekpa’s offences.
However, the Court of Appeal upheld the decision of the Päijät-Häme District Court, which found Ekpa guilty of terrorism-related charges.
Ekpa had told the court that his involvement was not motivated by terrorist intent, citing the political turmoil in the Biafran region.
In its ruling, the Court of Appeal found him guilty of the same offences but reduced his prison term after considering the circumstances surrounding his actions.
The court, however, noted that the situation in the Biafran region closely resembled, but did not meet the definition of, a civil war.
