Finland's Court of Appeal has overturned the convictions of several men previously jailed for raping a woman with intellectual disabilities, ruling that her condition did not necessarily preclude her ability to consent.

The case, which spanned from December 2017 to February 2020, initially resulted in sentences ranging from 10 months to two and a half years for seven men, including Samir Jasin Kadir, Alaa Kamil Al-Saadi, Sami Al-Mosawi, and Mohammed Ali Mohammed Mohammed. The District Court of Pirkanmaa had convicted them in May 2022 for repeatedly sexually abusing the disabled woman, Remix News reports.

The central legal argument revolved around whether the victim's intellectual disability was sufficiently apparent to be recognized across cultural backgrounds, and if the defendants should have been aware that she could not provide informed consent.

Initially, the lower court equated the victim's disability to that of a minor in terms of inability to consent. It also determined that the defendants had targeted her due to her vulnerability.

However, the Court of Appeal in Turku accepted the appellants' argument that they could not reasonably have been expected to detect the woman's intellectual disability. The court stated, "Criminal law regulation is therefore not justified in aiming to maintain or achieve, for example, decency or uniform gender behavior. It must also be taken into account that different people's sexual lives can be very different."

Despite a medical report indicating the woman's increased risk of abuse and susceptibility to influence, the appellate court ruled that intellectual disability alone does not render a person incapable of consenting to sexual intercourse.

The higher court quashed all sentences and revoked the €16,000 compensation order previously awarded to the victim. The verdict can still be appealed to the Supreme Court before August 27.