A detention hearing is tentatively scheduled for Monday afternoon. The suspected crimes were committed in 2014–2015.
Central Criminal Police (krp) represents a Russian Voislav Tordenia to be detained on suspicion of gross war crimes and war crimes in Ukraine. According to the detention request submitted to the district court, the suspected crimes were committed in 2014–2015.
The Helsinki District Court received the detention request on Sunday. The district court tells STT that the detention hearing will be held tentatively on Monday afternoon.
Deputy Crown Prosecutor Jukka Rappe decided on Friday that a preliminary investigation into Torden's, 36, suspected crimes in Ukraine will be launched in Finland. According to Rappe, the criminal suspicions will be investigated in Finland, because according to the Supreme Court (KKO) Torden cannot be extradited to Ukraine. The KKO justified its position with the poor prison conditions in Ukraine.
According to the press release published by the Prosecutor's Office on Friday, the criminal suspicions concern events before the current war in Ukraine.
“The subject of the investigation is actions committed in connection with the armed conflict in Eastern Ukraine before the current war, against wounded or surrendered Ukrainian soldiers, which are suspected of meeting the hallmarks of a war crime,” the release states.
Torden is also known as Jan Petrovski, and he is on the EU sanctions list against Russia under the name Petrovski. According to the reasons, he is a founding member of the Russian Rusitsch military group and one of its commanders. The group has been considered to have operated in Ukraine in connection with the mercenary company Wagner.
In Ukraine, he is suspected of involvement in a terrorist organization and of promoting the activities of a terrorist organization. Rappe told STT on Friday that according to the Finnish Criminal Code, the acts that Torden is suspected of are classified as war crimes instead of terrorism crimes.
Finland caught Torden in July when he tried to board a flight to Nice at Helsinki-Vantaa airport.
Since then, he has been in the possession of the authorities in Finland for various reasons. In the summer, he was detained when Ukraine demanded that Torden be extradited for trial. When KKO's negative stance on extradition came in December and KKO decided to release Torden, the Border Guard took him into custody to determine his right to be in Finland.
On Friday, the police arrested Torden because the Deputy Crown Prosecutor decided to start a preliminary investigation.
In principle, people on the EU's embargoed list do not have the right to enter an EU country. However, Petrovski got a residence permit in Finland under the name Torden based on his wife's place of study.
Acting as Torden's legal assistant Heikki Lampela has however told STT that Torden did not have an address in Finland at the time of his arrest and that Torden did not live in Finland. Lampela told STT on Friday that Torden denies the suspected war crimes.
“In my opinion, it is in no way in Finland's interest and it is not appropriate for Finland to use its own civil service machinery and its own money to investigate such matters. I think it doesn't even belong to Finland,” Lampela said at the time.
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