As Russia threats loom, Finland's people are learning to shoot back

KERAVA, Finland (AP) — Unsettled by Russia's expansionism and emboldened by its recent accession to NATO, Finland is rallying to strengthen its national self-defense beyond its traditional military capabilities.

The popularity of weapons training in the Nordic country has soared in recent months. Few places tell the story of the rise in Finnish affinity for self-defense more than shooting ranges that are riding a boom of interest.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s order for a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine — another big Russian neighbor — in February 2022 continues to resonate in many Finnish minds, and partially explains the ballistics binge.

The Vantaa Reservist Association, which operates a gun range in a warehouse once used to make sex toys, in Kerava, north of Helsinki, has more than doubled its membership over the last two years and now counts over 2,100 members.

“They have something in the back of their head ringing that this is the skill I have to learn now,” said association chairman Antti Kettunen, standing among bullet-riddled targets. “I think that the wind has changed, now it’s blowing from the east.”

Earlier this year, the coalition government announced plans to open more than 300 new ranges — a big jump from the 670 in operation today.

Authorities are encouraging citizens to take up interest in national defense in the country with a 1,340-kilometer (830-mile) border with Russia, where firing shots in ice hockey has been more of a pastime than shooting bullets.

“Interest in national defense is traditionally very high in Finland and especially these days with the Russian aggression on Ukraine, the interest has risen even more,” lawmaker Jukka Kopra, who chairs Finland’s defense committee, told AP earlier in December.

Inspired largely by concerns over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Finland became the 31st member of the NATO military alliance last year. Western neighbor Sweden followed suit in March. The two countries last month announced plans to boost their civil defense strategies, without mentioning Russia by name.

The surge in self-defense strategies doesn’t stop at shooting ranges.

The National Defense Training Association says it has hosted a collective total of 120,000 training days this year, more than double the number three years ago.

The national reservists' association, which is about 90% composed of military reservists but also some hobbyists, has grown by more than two-thirds to over 50,000 members since the invasion of Ukraine.

And unlike some other European countries, Finland has kept around 50,000 Cold-War era civil defense shelters, which could accommodate roughly 85% of the population of about 5.5 million people.

"This is the new era of civil defense shelters, which is against the newest developments of war,” said Tomi Rask, of Helsinki Rescue Services, during a recent tour of one shelter in the capital. “We know that all of our neighbors have the capability of harming us, of harming our citizens, and we think that we need to prepare.”

Wearing camouflage at the range in Kerava, military reservists and firearm hobbyists bob and weave their way through an obstacle course, at times opening fire with deafening Glock handguns against human-shaped targets.

“Some people do this just for fun,” said member Miikka Kallio, a 38-year-old firefighter. “Some (do) maybe because of our eastern neighbor: I’ve heard comments that they’ve joined the reservists because of the Russian attack (on Ukraine.)”

Finland is no stranger to tensions with Russia and a big part of the country's national identity was forged battling its eastern neighbor - gaining independence from the Russian empire in 1917 and then fending off a large Soviet force with its tiny, ill-equipped army in what become known as the Winter War at the start of the Second World War.

Kettunen said learning to shoot guns is a bit like learning to swim: Both require training and preparation.

“When you need to know how to shoot or swim, and you don’t, it’s too late,” he said.

Members of the Vantaa Reservists Association practice at a shooting range in a warehouse in Kerava on the outskirts of Helsinki, Finland, Monday, Dec. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/James Brooks)

Members of the Vantaa Reservists Association practice at a shooting range in a warehouse in Kerava on the outskirts of Helsinki, Finland Monday, Dec. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/James Brooks)

Members of the Vantaa Reservists Association practice at a shooting range in a warehouse in Kerava on the outskirts of Helsinki, Finland Monday, Dec. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/James Brooks)

Members of the Vantaa Reservists Association practice at a shooting range in a warehouse in Kerava on the outskirts of Helsinki, Finland Monday, Dec. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/James Brooks)

Members of the Vantaa Reservists Association practice at a shooting range in a warehouse in Kerava on the outskirts of Helsinki, Finland Monday, Dec. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/James Brooks)

Members of the Vantaa Reservists Association practice at a shooting range in a warehouse in Kerava on the outskirts of Helsinki, Finland, Monday, Dec. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/James Brooks)

AVIGNON, France (AP) — Gisèle Pelicot said after 51 men were all found guilty Thursday in the drugging-and-rape trial that turned her into a feminist hero that the ordeal was “very difficult” and expressed support for other victims of sexual violence.

“We share the same fight,” she said in her first words after the court in the southern French city of Avignon handed down prison sentences ranging from three to 20 years.

She said that she had her grandchildren in mind as she endured the more than three months of hearings, saying: “It’s also for them that I led this fight.”

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

AVIGNON, France (AP) — A court in France on Thursday sentenced the ex-husband of Gisèle Pelicot to 20 years in prison for drugging and raping her and allowing other men to rape her while she was unconscious, in abuse that lasted nearly a decade.

The sentence against Dominique Pelicot was the maximum possible under French law. He was declared guilty of all charges against him. At age 72, it could mean that he spends the rest of his life in prison. He won't be eligible to ask for early release until at least two-thirds of the sentence has been served.

The shocking case stunned France and spurred a national reckoning about the blight of rape culture.

Roger Arata, the lead judge of the court in the southern French city Avignon, told Pelicot to stand for the sentencing. After it was delivered, he sat back down and cried.

Arata read out verdicts one after the other against Pelicot and the 50 other men tried in the case. Gisèle Pelicot's courage, grace and stoicism during the ordeal of hearings that stretched over more than three months also turned Gisèle Pelicot into an icon for campaigners against sexual violence, including outside of France.

“You are therefore declared guilty of aggravated rape on the person of Mme. Gisèle Pelicot,” the judge said as he worked his way through names on the long list of defendants.

Gisèle Pelicot was seated on one side of the courtroom, facing the defendants and sometimes nodding her head as verdicts were announced. Delivering the guilty verdicts and sentences took Arata just over an hour.

Dominique Pelicot's lawyer, Béatrice Zavarro, said that she would weigh a possible appeal, but also expressed hope that Gisèle Pelicot would find solace in the court's rulings.

“I wanted Mrs. Pelicot to be able to emerge from these hearings in peace, and I think that the verdicts will contribute to this relief for Mrs. Pelicot," she said.

Of the 50 accused of rape, just one was acquitted but was found guilty of aggravated sexual assault. Another man was also found guilty on the sexual assault charge that he was tried for — meaning all 51 of the defendants were found guilty in one way or another.

In a side room where defendants' family members watched the proceedings on television screens, some burst into tears and gasped as the sentences were revealed.

Protesters gathered outside the courthouse followed the proceedings on their phones. Some read out the verdicts and applauded as they were announced inside. Some were carrying oranges as symbolic gifts for the defendants heading to prison.

Prosecutors had asked that Dominique Pelicot get the maximum penalty of 20 years and for sentences of 10 to 18 years for the others tried for rape.

But the court was more lenient than prosecutors had hoped, with many sentenced to less than a decade in prison.

For the defendants other than Dominique Pelicot, the sentences ranged from three to 15 years imprisonment, with some of the time suspended for some of them. Arata told six defendants they were now free, accounting for time already spent in detention while awaiting trial.

Dominique Pelicot admitted that for years he drugged his then wife of 50 years so that he and strangers he recruited online could abuse her while he filmed the assaults.

The appalling ordeal inflicted over nearly a decade on Gisèle Pelicot, now a 72-year-old grandmother, in what she thought was a loving marriage and her courage during the bruising trial have transformed the retired power company worker into a feminist hero of the nation.

Stretching over more than three months, the trial galvanized campaigners against sexual violence and spurred calls for tougher measures to stamp out rape culture.

The defendants were all accused of having taken part in Dominique Pelicot's sordid rape and abuse fantasies that were acted out in the couple's retirement home in the small Provence town of Mazan and elsewhere.

Dominique Pelicot testified that he hid tranquilizers in food and drink that he gave his then wife, knocking her out so profoundly that he could do what he wanted to her for hours.

One of the men was found guilty and sentenced to 12 years imprisonment not for assaulting Gisèle Pelicot but for drugging and raping his own wife — with help and drugs from Dominique Pelicot, who was also found guilty of raping that man's wife, too.

The five judges voted by secret ballot in their rulings, with majority votes for the convictions and sentences.

Campaigners against sexual violence were hoping for exemplary prison terms and viewed the trial as a possible turning point in the fight against sexual violence and the use of drugs to subdue victims.

Gisèle Pelicot's courage in waiving her right to anonymity as a survivor of sexual abuse and successfully pushing for the hearings and shocking evidence — including videos — to be heard in open court have fueled conversations both on a national level in France and among families, couples and groups of friends about how to better protect women and the role that men can play in pursuing that goal.

“Men are starting to talk to women — their girlfriends, mothers and friends — in ways they hadn’t before,” said Fanny Foures, 48, who joined other women from the feminist group Les Amazones in gluing messages of support for Gisèle Pelicot on walls around Avignon before the verdict.

“It was awkward at first, but now real dialogues are happening," she said.

“Some women are realizing, maybe for the first time, that their ex-husbands violated them, or that someone close to them committed abuse,” Foures added. “And men are starting to reckon with their own behavior or complicity — things they’ve ignored or failed to act on. It’s heavy, but it’s creating change.”

A large banner that campaigners hung on a city wall opposite the courthouse read, “MERCI GISELE” — thank you Gisèle.

Dominique Pelicot first came to the attention of police in September 2020, when a supermarket security guard caught him surreptitiously filming up women’s skirts.

Police subsequently found his library of homemade images documenting years of abuse inflicted on his wife — more than 20,000 photos and videos in all, stored on computer drives and catalogued in folders marked “abuse,” “her rapists,” “night alone” and other titles.

The abundance of evidence led police to the other defendants. In the videos, investigators counted 72 different abusers, but weren't able to identify them all.

Although some of the accused — including Dominique Pelicot — acknowledged that they were guilty of rape, many didn't, even in the face of video evidence. The hearings sparked wider debate in France about whether the country’s legal definition of rape should be expanded to include specific mention of consent.

Some defendants argued that Dominique Pelicot’s consent covered his wife, too. Some sought to excuse their behavior by insisting that they hadn’t intended to rape anyone when they responded to the husband’s invitations to come to their home. Some laid blame at his door, saying he misled them into thinking they were taking part in consensual kink.

Nicolas Vaux-Montagny contributed to this report from Lyon.

Gisele Pelicot, who was allegedly drugged by her now former husband so that he and others could assault her, arrives at the court house in Avignon, southern France, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly)

Members of the feminist collective "Les Amazones Avignon" post a message of support for Gisele Pelicot reading "In France in 2024, 94 percent of the rapist are acquitted" near the courthouse where the Mazan rape trial is taking place, in Avignon, France, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly)

A defendant arrives in the Avignon courthouse, southern France, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly)

FILE - This courtroom sketch by Valentin Pasquier shows Gisèle Pelicot, left, and her ex-husband Dominique Pelicot, right, during his trial at the courthouse in Avignon, southern France, on Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Valentin Pasquier, File)

Media wait outside the courthouse of Avignon during the trial of four dozen men charged with aggravated rape and sexual assault on Gisèle Pelicot, in Avignon, southern France, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly)

Gisele Pelicot, who was allegedly drugged by her now former husband so that he and others could assault her, arrives at the court house in Avignon, southern France, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly)

Gisele Pelicot, who was allegedly drugged by her now former husband so that he and others could assault her, arrives at the court house in Avignon, southern France, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly)

Gisele Pelicot, who was allegedly drugged by her now former husband so that he and others could assault her, arrives at the court house in Avignon, southern France, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly)

Police officers stand guard inside the courthouse of Avignon during the trial of four dozen men charged with aggravated rape and sexual assault on Gisèle Pelicot, in Avignon, southern France, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly)

A man with a placard reading "Christmas in prison, Easter in the slammer" walks past the media as they wait outside the courthouse of Avignon during the trial of Dominique Pelicot, in Avignon, southern France, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly)

A member of the feminist collective "Les Amazones Avignon" sticks a message of support for Gisele Pelicot reading "Sorority" around the courthouse where the Mazan rape trial is taking place in Avignon, France, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly)

FILE - A woman holds a placard that reads, "Thank you Gisele," outside the Palace of Justice during a women's rights demonstration, Dec. 14, 2024, in Avignon, southern France, where dozens of men are on trial in Avignon, accused of raping Gisèle Pelicot while she was drugged and rendered unconscious by her husband. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard, File)

Members of the feminist collective "Les Amazones Avignon" attach a message of support for Gisele Pelicot reading "rape = jail" near the courthouse where the Mazan rape trial is taking place in Avignon, France, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly)

Members of the feminist collective "Les Amazones Avignon" attach a message for Gisele Pelicot near the courthouse where the Mazan rape trial is taking place in Avignon, France, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly)

Members of the feminist collective "Les Amazones Avignon" stand by a message of support for Gisele Pelicot reading "Shame has changed side, what about justice ?" during their action of collage of messages around the courthouse where the Mazan rape trial is taking place in Avignon, France, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly)

Members of the feminist collective "Les Amazones Avignon" stick a message of support for Gisele Pelicot reading "Justice for Gisele" in the streets around the courthouse where the Mazan rape trial is taking place in Avignon, France, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly)

Members of the feminist collective "Les Amazones Avignon" hang a banner reading "Thank you Gisele" during their action of collage of messages of support near the courthouse where the Mazan rape trial is taking place in Avignon, France, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly)

A woman fires a flare outside the Palace of Justice during a women's rights demonstration, Saturday, Dec. 14, 2024 in Avignon, southern France, where the trial of dozens of men accused of raping Gisèle Pelicot while she was drugged and rendered unconscious by her husband is taking place. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)

FILE - A man rides a bicycle in front of a banner that reads, "A rape is a rape," in Avignon, southern France, on Oct. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly, File)

FILE - Activists gather during a women's rights demonstration, Dec. 14, 2024, in Avignon, southern France, where the trial of dozens of men accused of raping Gisèle Pelicot while she was drugged and rendered unconscious by her husband is taking place. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard, File)

FILE - People applaud Gisèle Pelicot, front right, who was allegedly drugged by her then-husband so that he and others could sexually assault her, leaves the courthouse in Avignon, southern France, on Dec. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly, File)

FILE - Gisèle Pelicot, who prosecutors say was drugged by her then-husband so that men could rape her as she lay unconscious, leaves the courthouse in Avignon, southern France, on Oct. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly, File)

FILE - This courtroom sketch by Valentin Pasquier shows Gisèle Pelicot, left, and her ex-husband Dominique Pelicot, right, during his trial at the courthouse in Avignon, southern France, on Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Valentin Pasquier, File)