A Finnish court of appeal has reduced the prison sentence of Biafra separatist agitator Simon Ekpa from six years to four years, while upholding his convictions for terrorism-related offences.

In its ruling on Thursday, the court affirmed the September 2025 judgment of the Päijät-Häme District Court, which found Ekpa guilty of participating in the activities of a terrorist group and publicly inciting people to commit crimes with terrorist intent.

Ekpa, 41, has been in custody since his arrest in Finland in November 2024. He appealed the original sentence, while prosecutors also challenged the ruling, seeking a longer jail term.

However, the appeal court reduced his sentence, citing circumstances surrounding the offences that it said bore similarities to situations in which grounds for exemption from criminal liability, such as civil war, self-defence and necessity, could arise.

According to the court, the district court had accepted the prosecution’s argument that Ekpa operated from Finland as the supreme commander of several armed groups in south-eastern Nigeria.

The groups allegedly sought to establish an independent Biafran state, with members linked to attacks on police stations, government buildings and military roadblocks.

During the appeal, Ekpa presented additional evidence to support his claim that an internal armed conflict was ongoing in south-eastern Nigeria. He argued that international humanitarian law, rather than Finland’s domestic terrorism laws, should apply to his activities.

The court examined the nature of the conflict, the organisation of the armed groups and the intensity of the fighting, drawing comparisons with legal assessments of the Balkan wars by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

It found that evidence of Nigerian government forces deploying heavy weapons, including armoured vehicles and combat helicopters, supported the existence of an internal armed conflict.

However, the court ruled that the fighting did not meet the legal threshold for a civil war. It also rejected Ekpa’s argument that the conflict negated terrorist intent in his actions.

Despite upholding his convictions, the court considered the circumstances surrounding the offences as a mitigating factor in determining his sentence, reducing the prison term from six years to four.