At kidnapping trial, Turunen admits taking hostage

Herlin dynasty heiress was held for 17 days before release after ransom payment

print this

Helsinki District Court on Tuesday began hearing the case of Juha Turunen, who is accused of kidnapping a member of the Herlin industrial dynasty and holding her for a ransom of EUR eight million earlier this year.
      Turunen was indicted for hostage-taking, aggravated assault and battery, aggravated violation of domestic peace, and aggravated blackmail. The prosecution in the case is calling for an eight-year prison sentence.
     
Turunen conceded the charges of hostage taking, but he denied the assault and battery charges, arguing that the victim was not harmed in the ordeal.
      The defence also asserted that the acts of violating domestic peace and blackmail were already covered by the hostage-taking charge.
      The 26-year-old victim and her parents are demanding extensive monetary damages from Turunen, who did not oppose the demand.
     
Turunen kidnapped the 26-year-old victim from her home in Helsinki in late May. The prosecution alleges that Turunen attacked the victim by using a taser. The defence says that the device did not work.
      Then he bound his victim and sedated her with ether. Turunen transported his victim to Turku in a wooden box.
      In Turku he kept the victim in a Turku apartment that he owns, shut in a home-made box for two weeks. The box was sound-proofed with two layers of glass wool.
     
Turunen monitored his victim with the help of a web camera and sent her parents several ransom demands. The messages, which were written in English, referred to the woman as commercial goods already taken abroad. The messages also threatened her life if the ransom was not forthcoming.
      Turunen also sent photographs of the victim, in which she appeared with a daily newspaper to establish the time that the picture was taken.
     
In police questioning, the victim said that the box where she was kept was very hot and uncomfortable. She said that she felt as if the oxygen would run out. The box had a television set and a digital decoder inside.
      Turunen would bring her food and drink and other goods. She said that he wore a black hood over his face, and red skiing goggles. In front of his mouth he had a device which changed his voice.
     
The woman was freed after the parents had paid a ransom of eight million euros.
      She was found on the side of a forest road in Vahto in the southwest of Finland.
      Turunen was arrested shortly thereafter, and the ransom money was soon recovered.
     
At the beginning of the opening session of the trial, Turunen was also read a separate charge of aggravated embezzlement and forgery.
      The prosecution says that Turunen’s colleague, who was stricken with cancer, had asked him to take care of his young son’s interests after his death.
      At the boy’s trustee, Turunen sold a house owned by the boy in 2007 and kept the EUR 138,000 himself.
     
The prosecution says that Turunen deposited the money on his own bank account, and used it for his own investment activities, and to cover living expenses.
      The prosecution also pointed out that the investment activities appeared to be rather unsuccessful, as the money has disappeared.
      Turunen has returned a total of EUR 3,000. To cover up his debt Turunen forged a number of bank documents.
      The defence noted that Turunen confessed to the embezzlement in police questioning.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Kidnapping case: Police retrieve all ransom money (18.6.2009)
  Kidnapping suspect confessed already in first police interrogation (17.6.2009)
  Suspected kidnapper believed to have acted alone (16.6.2009)
  Member of Herlin industrial dynasty held hostage for over two weeks (15.6.2009)

See also:
  Herlin built up Kone industrial empire at family´s expense (24.9.2009)

Helsingin Sanomat