Legal proceedings Jari Aarnio assassinated on Friday morning – Release from custody anticipates dismissal

Helsinki The Court of Appeal will pass a verdict on Friday at 11 a.m. to the former head of the Helsinki Drug Police Jari Aarnioon and a former criminal boss Keijo Vilhuseen murder charges against him.

In December 2020, the Helsinki District Court sentenced Aarnio to life imprisonment for murder. According to the court, as a police officer, he had not prevented the assassination in 2003, even though he knew about the project in advance.

Instead, Vilhunen’s charge was dismissed. Prosecutors had also demanded a murder sentence for Vilhus because they said the man had been involved in the project.

Indications of the future decision of the Court of Appeal are given by its decision to release Aarnio from pre-trial detention in connection with the murder case in December. The Court of Appeal may therefore set aside a life sentence.

Aarnio is still serving his 13-year sentence for serious drug offenses, among other things.

Read more: Helsinki Court of Appeal: Jari Aarnio charged with murder ordered immediate release from pre-trial detention

Murder charge is exceptional in many ways. Not even the prosecutor claims that neither Aarnio nor Vilhunen was present when the Swedish-Swedish friend who betrayed his underworld friend Volkan Ünsal was assassinated in October 2003 in Vuosaari, Helsinki.

At one time, four men were sentenced to life imprisonment for the act.

The Central Criminal Police reopened the investigation in 2016 when there were indications that the original investigation was incomplete.

Both Aarnio and Vilhunen denied the charge. However, their stories went badly crosswise.

Had Aarnio known about the murder project in advance and what was Vilhunen’s role in the figure?

In the judgment of the Court of Appeal, the judges’ assessment of the course of events is interesting: had Aarnio known about the murder project in advance and what was Vilhunen’s role in the figure?

Vilhunen said he knew about the plan but acted as a source of information for the police. He said he had passed on all the information about the murder plan to Aarnio and believed that the police would prevent the murder.

Aarnio, on the other hand, denied that he had received information about the murder plans from Vilhus. He reportedly had at most rumor-level information about the project.

According to the district court, there was no evidence that Vilhunen had participated in the murder project even as a donor. Vilhunen’s account of the events was possible and so plausible that there was considerable doubt as to his guilt.

Instead, Aarnio was already aware of the threat of a homicide against Ünsal as early as June 2003. He also knew that Ünsal came to Finland with his childhood friend at the end of September 2003. In mid-October, Ünsal was assassinated.

“Aarnio’s information about the homicide plan has been clarified, and the suspects have been known to him,” the court noted.

The verdict was also completely exceptional in law. This was the first time that an authority had been convicted of murder in Finland for negligence.

Read more: Jari Aarnio sentenced to death for life – Prosecutor praises sentence as logical: “I don’t know if this is a celebration when the police commit murder in office”