Timo Vornanen (PS), a first-term Member of Finnish Parliament from Joensuu, posed for a photo in the Parliament House in Helsinki in April 2023. Media reports indicate that the 54-year-old lawmaker is suspected over a shooting that took place outside a nightclub in central Helsinki on Friday, 26 April 2024. (Markku Ulander – Lehtikuva)
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A 54-YEAR-OLD man was arrested last weekend on suspicion of an offence against the life or health of others in connection with a shooting that took place in central Helsinki, on Friday, according to a press release issued shortly after noon on Saturday by Helsinki Police Department.
While the suspect was not identified in the press release, several media reports and lawmakers have identified him as Timo Vornanen (PS), a first-term Member of Parliament from Joensuu.
He is a member of the parliamentary committee on intelligence oversight.
Harri Vuorenpää, the party secretary of the Finns Party, on Saturday wrote on X that Vornanen has been released from police custody. The suspect of any criminal offence must be released no later than 12 hours after their arrest unless the investigators demand that the suspect be placed in pre-trial detention.
“Nothing can justify these actions,” Riikka Purra, the chairperson of the populist right-wing party, commented to Helsingin Sanomat on Saturday. “Vornanen’s position, education and occupation make it even more serious.”
Vornanen, whose hobbies include hunting, is on leave from his position as senior constable at Eastern Finland Police Department.
Seiska was the first news outlet to write about his role in the incident, at around 6.30pm on Friday.
According to Purra, Vornanen was in the nightclub with a group that also included another Finns Party MP, Sanna Antikainen from Outokumpu.
Helsinki Police Department said the shooting occurred following an altercation that “probably” involved some pushing and shoving between the suspect and a group of work colleagues at around 3.30am in Bar Ihku, Helsinki. Although the altercation was resolved in the nightclub, the suspect and group met outside the nightclub some 30 minutes later, with the suspect unexpectedly brandishing a firearm, pointing it at people at the scene and discharging one bullet at the ground.
“Interrogation accounts of the events that transpired outside the nightclub are contradictory. A CCTV recording of the incident exists,” the press release reads.
No one sustained injuries in the incident, Jukka Larkio, the officer in charge of the pre-trial investigation, stated to Helsingin Sanomat on Saturday.
Pertti Rauhio, the administrative director at the Finnish Parliament, said to Helsingin Sanomat that Vornanen likely left the Parliament House at about 6pm, without leaving his firearm in the security department for safekeeping. Lawmakers, he reminded, can store firearms used for hunting or other recreational purposes in the building if they need them after the workday.
“I’d assume that had he left it there, I would’ve been notified. Based on this, you can conclude that he didn’t leave it in the storage,” he said.
The newspaper wrote that the shooting was committed with what has been described as a small-calibre firearm. It is not believed to be a police service firearm but rather one used for recreational purposes.
Vuorenpää from the Finns Party on Sunday said Vornanen is on a two-week sick leave for reasons not disclosed to public. Any decisions about his future in the party will be made in formal meetings of the party and the parliamentary group, Purra stated to Helsingin Sanomat on Sunday.
“The party is not an investigative authority, but we’ll take action based on information uncovered by police,” she wrote yesterday on X.
Both the Finns Party and Helsinki Police Department have come under criticism for the communication approach taken to the case.
Terhi Toivonen, a political journalist at YLE, estimated in her analysis that the party leadership knew about the incident a whole day before the police press release issued shortly after noon on Saturday. The incident had, after all, been witnessed by a party member and police had the obligation to issue a notification about the arrest to Speaker of Parliament Jussi Halla-aho (PS).
It also took police a day and a half to issue a release about the incident, despite the intense media scrutiny triggered by the first report by Seiska on Friday.
Jussi Pullinen from Helsingin Sanomat drew a similar conclusion: “The Seiska report a startling scoop, the kind any news outlet wants to report. At the same time, it was alarming that Finland had to read about such an exceptional suspected offence from a news story published in the evening, with no additional information made available,” he wrote.
Aleksi Teivainen – HT
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Source: www.helsinkitimes.fi
