Jyväskylä City Councilor Teemu Torssonen is not charged with attempting to kill a Finnish party aide Pekka Kataja at home last summer, according to the Central Finland prosecutor.
Insead, criminal proceedings were brought against the suspect for the man’s brutal assault.
The approximately 42-year-old suspect, who is currently in pre-trial detention, faces one attempted murder and an aggravated domestic assault charge.
The suspect is a friend and political supporter of Torssonen, who himself was previously considered a suspect in the attack – but was released from arrest last Wednesday – but the prosecutor says he is not being charged.
Juniper, who has served as the party’s parliamentary assistant Jouni Kotiaho, claimed that two unknown men attacked him in front of the door of his home on July 17, also hit him with a hard object.
The victim was hospitalized for a broken skull, cerebral hemorrhage, and three rib fractures.
Motive examined
Torssonen was originally suspected of participating in the attack because he was considered to be harming Kataja, to prevent Torssonen from running for Finland as a party candidate in Finland’s previous parliamentary elections.
The party’s Central Finland chapter made a decision to block Torssonen’s candidate. He was later expelled from the party.
Juniper previously named Torssonen as one of the potential attackers at the start of the investigation. But during a police investigation, Kataja never said he recognized Torssonen as a second attacker, according to the prosecutor.
A police investigation found Torssonen’s fingerprints on part of a package that the attackers had used as an excuse to approach Juniper and deliver it to their home. A fingerprint of a 42-year-old suspect was also found on the packaging.
According to the prosecutor, the fingerprints on the package indicated that Torssonen had been involved in the crime or its preparation.
A preliminary police test also revealed that Torssonen had reset his smartphone and changed his cell phone subscription several times during the summer. Police also suspected that Torsson had deliberately destroyed his computer before the attack.
Lightning requirement repealed
Torssonen told police that his computer had been damaged in a lightning bolt on July 21, but investigators found that there was no such lightning strike in the vicinity of the device at the time.
The prosecutor said Torsson had acquired an external hard drive two days before the alleged lighting strike and backed up the computer’s data. This raised suspicions that he had saved important files before destroying the computer so that contacts could not be retrieved from the device.
Torssonen has denied all allegations throughout the investigation.
In the criminal proceedings, the prosecutor said the handwritten papers in Torssonen’s possession contained plans to form some sort of alliance. According to the prosecutor’s interpretation, that union was a "syndicate" and "guerrilla army," including group name, membership level, and rules.
According to the prosecutor, the evidence showed that Torssonen and some of his supporters considered criminal activity to be an acceptable means of achieving their goals.
Torssonen is not at the crime scene
However, a police probe found that Torssonen could not have been at the crime scene when it happened on July 17 from 9:45 to 9:57. Investigators found a receipt for a pair of sunglasses purchased that day at 4:16 p.m. from the apartment.
In addition, Torssonen had spoken to a person in Jyäskylä just before 11 a.m., the witness told investigators, according to the prosecutor.
Because Torssonen’s fingerprints were on the package for several different reasons, the prosecutor said there was not enough evidence to link him to the crime.
Instead, the prosecutor said it could not be ruled out that part of Torssonen "strongly like-minded supporters" had attacked Juniper on their own initiative.
Torssonen “satisfied”
Torssonen told Yle that he was pleased with the prosecutor’s decision not to prosecute him.
"I do not agree with everything, but I’m pleased with how objectively the prosecutor has investigated the case," Torssonen said. "I am completely innocent of this crime."
However, he refuted the prosecutor’s claim that he was forming a criminal group.
"At least to the best of my knowledge, there is no underground guerrilla organization, and at least I am not in contact with me," he told Yle and thought he added to the media’s unfortunate case and misrepresented him as aggressive and violent.
The prosecutor filed criminal charges with the Central Finland District Court on Monday, and negotiations are scheduled to begin on February 23.
Source: The Nordic Page