Criminal proceedings against a large number of young men accused of violent assault and robbery of two teenagers began on Wednesday in the Helsinki District Court.
Fifteen men aged 21 to 26 were charged with aggravated assault and aggravated theft on March 27 in an incident in the Pikku Huopalahti district.
The prosecutor said the men had violently seized the 16-year-old boy’s cell phone and also beat the 17-year-old man.
According to the indictment, some of the accused gathered at the Jumbo shopping center in Vantaa before the act, of which at least five brought baseball bats and disposable gloves for a violent crime.
That group, according to the prosecutor, then drove to Little Huopalahti, where they wore disposable gloves and disguised their faces. Members of the group claimed to have also carried several knives and firearms.
The men claimed to surround and attack the 16-year-old victim and picked up his phone and then began hitting the 17-year-old boy by kicking and poking him in the leg.
After the attacks, the prosecutor accused the group of leaving the scene in their cars, with the police with them on the cityโs Mannerheimintie walkway.
According to the prosecutor, all 15 defendants were involved in the crimes by either participating in the planning or participation in the attack, driving cars to the scene of the assault, or stealing the boyโs phone.
Prosecutor: ‘outrageous’ attack
The prosecutor described the violence perpetrated by the group against minors as particularly cruel and cruel.
Another accusation against the group was theft rather than worse robbery.
In addition, one of the accused is charged with illegal drugs and accused of providing false information to the authorities. It was alleged that he was in possession of a small amount of cannabis and gave the police a fake name when he was arrested.
The prosecutor has demanded the men be sentenced to prison for their crimes.
During the pre-trial investigation, police found the suspects to be particularly silent about the incidents related to the incident, saying that a large number of the accused refused to answer the investigators โquestions.
According to police, the motives for the attacks remain unclear. Authorities suspect that the original targets of the planned attack were another group of men holding knives who were arrested by police in the relatively close district of Pitรคjรคnmรคki at the time of the incident.
Some of the accused were previously known to have committed violence and drugs. Most of the group have been in police custody since the day of the attack, while others have been arrested since April 24.
Source: The Nordic Page