Extradition of suspected terrorists halted in Finland

[Tiriol]

At least for a while. The situation has been brewing for an entire week.

Iran demands extradition of two suspected terrorists.

Iran demands extradition of “terrorists”
Two Iranian exiles detained on Sunday

Iran is demanding that Finland extradite two Iranian men whom it accuses of being members of the MKO organisation, which it considers a terrorist group. The two were stopped while entering Finland on Sunday.
The chairwoman of the Parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee, Heidi Hautala (Green) says that the men came to Finland to take part in preparations for the visit of the organisation’s leader Maruam Rajavi, who was invited to Finland by the Parliament’s human rights group.
Officials held the two at Helsinki-Vantaa Airport on the basis of an international arrest warrant issued by Interpol.
Helsingin Sanomat has learned that the warrant was issued at the request of Iran. There was no suspicion that the two would commit crimes while in Finland.

The police kept the two in custody from Sunday until the Wednesday court hearing.
Police asked the court to allow the two to be kept in jail until Finland decides on Iran’s extradition request.
The court let the men go, but they were ordered not to leave the country.
The Ministry of Justice will decide on the extradition request. Helsingin Sanomat was not able to reach Minister of Justice Tuija Brax (Green).

"It is very dangerous to let them go even for a short time, as they can flee. The Finns are not used to these kinds of people”, said Iranian Ambassador Reza Nazarahari to Helsingin Sanomat on Wednesday evening.
He says that the two should be handed over to Iran to face trial.
Ambassador Nazarahari claims that the two have high positions in the MKO organisation, which the United States and the European Union officially list as a terrorist group
A number of Parliamentarians from Finland and several other countries have said that MKO should be removed from the list of terrorist organisations.

“They are still dangerous”, Nazarahari reiterated, several times.
Arto Tuomela of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) said that the extradition request does not make any allegations that the two would have committed acts of terror.
“The request does not contain those words, but according to the request, serious acts are involved”, Tuomela says.

Heidi Hautala says that the men were granted exile in France decades ago. Hautala has been involved in inviting the leader of the organisation to Finland in her capacity as a member of the Parliament’s human rights group.
“It appears that Iran and Teheran are trying to do all they can to silence the opposition”, she notes.
“I feel that the starting point is that the constitution prevents the extradition of people to countries like Iran where they could face the death penalty”, Hautala says.

Minister of Justice Brax reiterated on Thursday that Finland will not extradite anyone to a country where they are in danger of facing the death penalty, torture, or inhumane treatment.
Helsingin Sanomat has learned that the men were to have taken part in a demonstration and a seminar during the meeting of the Ministerial Council of the Organisation of Security and Cooperation in Europe.
The police have informed the Ministry for Foreign Affairs about the matter because of the OSCE meeting. The Security Police have also been informed.

Helsingin Sanomat newspaper's website tackles the issue of the extradition's legality.

Law professor: Constitution should prevent extradition to Iran
Ministry to decide on fate of men ordered not to leave Finland

The Ministry of Justice is expected to decide in the coming weeks on whether or not to extradite two men wanted by Iran on charges of terrorism. In recent years Finland has refused to extradite a criminal suspect to another country only once, but this case is likely to be an exception.
It involves two Iranian men who were detained on an international arrest warrant as they entered Finland on Sunday. The two, who live in exile in France, are members of an Iranian opposition group. They came to Finland to participate in NGO activities linked with the OSCE foreign ministers’ meeting, and to prepare for a visit to the Finnish Parliament by Iranian human rights advocates.
The two were released from custody on Wednesday, and ordered not to leave the country for the time being.

Finnish Minister of Justice Tuija Brax (Green) said on Thursday that the Finnish constitution prohibits the extradition of anyone to a country where they might face the death penalty, torture, or other inhumane treatment.
Iran still implements the death penalty.
Human rights expert Martin Scheinin, a professor of international law, says that he does not believe that it is possible to extradite the men to Iran.
He also advises the Ministry of Justice to be cautious when it makes a decision on the matter.
According to the Ministry of Justice, Iran issued an arrest warrant through Interpol in 2002. Under the request, they are to be apprehended for extradition to Iran.
Finland acted according to the warrant, and stopped them at Helsinki-Vantaa Airport on Sunday.
Vantaa District Court released the men, but ordered them not to leave Finland.

Brax would not take a stand on the case of the two men, saying that Iran had not submitted an official extradition request. The Ministry of Justice has told Iran that it should submit such a request on Friday next week at the latest.
“Handling it will undoubtedly take several days”, says ministry official Juhani Korhonen.
Iran’s Ambassador to Finland Reza Nazarahari said in Helsingin Sanomat on Thursday that he hopes that the two will be sent to Iran for trial.

The ambassador claimed that the men have committed numerous crimes and have taken part in terrorist acts as members of the terrorist organisation MKO.
MKO does have a violent history, but numerous European parliamentarians see it as a non-violent organisation, and are calling on the EU to remove it from the list of terrorist groups.

The EU court declared on Thursday, for a third time, that MKO (also known by the initials PMOI) is not a terrorist organisation. In the view of the court, the EU was wrong to keep the assets of the organisation frozen.
MP Heidi Hautala (Green) points out that the men have been granted exile in France decades ago. She suspects that with its actions, Iran is trying to intimidate critics of its administration into silence.
Finland receives about one extradition request a year for a criminal from a country outside the EU, and the Ministry of Justice complies with the requests almost always.

Finland refused to extradite one person in 2007. The case reportedly involved a man suspected of theft in Belarus.

Yle News website report about a possible investigation into Interpol policies.

Interior Ministry to Investigate Interpol Arrest Warrants
Published 06.12.2008, 18.39 (updated 06.12.2008, 18.45)

Problems have surfaced with the arrest warrants issued by the international police organisation Interpol for two Iranian men who arrived in Finland last week.

A report in the daily Helsingin Sanomat indicates that the police arm of the Interior Ministry is investigating whether there were shortcomings in the system used to issue the arrest warrants for the Iranians.

Kari Rantama, head of the International Unit of the Ministry's police branch, said the probe will focus on last Sunday's detention of the two men.

The men were detained on the basis of the Interpol arrest warrant, but were released on Wednesday, albeit after receiving a travel ban.

The two were in Finland to take part in NGO activities linked with the OSCE foreign ministers' meeting.

Finland has not received an official extradition request for the men.

The National Council of Resistance of Iran NCRI sharply critised the arrests, claiming that Finland deprived the two representatives of the Iranian opposition of the right to free movement.

The Council also denounced the Interpol arrest warrant, stating that dictatorial regimes often blacklist people on the basis of their political beliefs, a practice that is not condoned by Interpol.

Rantama said it's possible that officials in Finland will start reviewing the Interpol arrest warrant, to determine whether it was politically motivated.

YLE

[Edi]

The probable outcome is that the Justice Ministry and the courts will tell Iran to piss off. Especially the attempt to tell our courts how they should rule is not going to go over well.

[Tiriol]

The probable outcome is that the Justice Ministry and the courts will tell Iran to piss off. Especially the attempt to tell our courts how they should rule is not going to go over well.

True. Although my current opinion of the sitting Justice Minister isn't too high (the up-coming Lex Nokia act is one done in poor taste and total ignorance), at least in this one she apparently is smart enough to recognize the importance of the Constitution.

However, it saddens me to read Helsingin Sanomat's message boards about this: so many people seem to be calling for immediate extradition and accuse the government of being "too soft" and "inviting more terrorists, criminals and murderers to Finland". This is the same crowd that cries bloody murder whenever a security guard has to use force to apprehend someone, when a police does the same (or, Heaven forbid, enforces the existing traffic rules) etc. It is juvenile behaviour from (allegedly) adult people: they expect that they should be exempted from the rule of law and possible repercussions, but that others should always be punished, even if it's against the law of the land. These are the same people who start spouting such non-sense as "I have more brains than your entire family, asshole!" when a security guard has to do his job and remove them from a building, facility etc. (that actually has happened).

And most morbidly some of the same people who would want to give Russia the finger in every single thing, just out of spite, are quite ready to accomolate the Iranian demands. Quite frankly, I find that hilarious and sad.

[Edi]

We've never had a shortage of fools in this country, no matter that we score highly on the OECD education rankings. Just do yourself a favor and don't read the text messages section of Metro...