The bribery case involving Finnish peacekeepers serving in Afghanistan will enter the Supreme Court this week. In the case to be heard, two superior officers are being charged with neglecting their duty to react to wrongdoings when ignoring bribery by subordinates.
Last autumn, the Helsinki Court of Appeal found one of the officers guilty of a service offence of negligence, because he had failed to launch an investigation into the goings-on. The court did not hand down a punishment, however. The charges against the second officer were dropped.
Subsequently State Prosecutor Jukka Rappe and one of the officers appealed to the Supreme Court.
Previously in the case, an interpreter and a project engineer serving in Afghanistan were discovered to have taken tens of thousands of US dollars in bribes in connection with construction projects in 2004-2006.
Both were sentenced by the Helsinki Court of Appeals to more than a year in prison.
