Defendant: Attack on Turkish Embassy was drunken whim

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An idea of a petrol bomb attack on the Embassy of Turkey in Helsinki last October emerged just a few hours before the incident, when three young men were sitting at a restaurant. The men were angry about the treatment of the Kurdish minority in Turkey, said one of the defendants during the trial at Helsinki District Court on Thursday.
     
The news of an assault on a Kurdish leader in Turkey had especially upset the group, said the young man who had taken part in a demonstration earlier on the same day protesting the actions of the Turkish government.
     ”We were drunk and upset over the news, which is why we decided that we should avenge the attack”, the young man said to the Court.
     The man added that a driver and a fifth member joined the group outside the restaurant.
     After acquiring some cloth, bottles, and petrol, the quintet headed for the Embassy.
     
According to the indictment, the five young men are suspected of setting fire to the Embassy of Turkey in Helsinki’s district of Kaivopuisto last October.
     A total of 17 people were inside the building at the time of the attack. One embassy official was hospitalised for smoke inhalation.
     The fire did not spread, as a police patrol happened to arrive on the scene, immediately taking measures to put it out. However, the estimated damage caused by the attack were EUR 25,000.
     
According to State Prosecutor Leena Metsäpelto, the act was politically motivated and the five men had acted in unison.
      The driver and the youngest of the defendants, who was only 16 at the time of the crime, said that they had been mere accomplices. They had been informed of the plan only when the group stopped by a filling station to buy petrol for the Molotov cocktails, they claimed.
     The driver said that he had been waiting in the car and did not participate in the attack itself.
     
The prosecutor said that it would be difficult to assess which penalty would be proper for the young men, and called for either a prison term, community service, or a suspended prison sentence for the defendants.
      Helsinki District Court is to issue its decision on the case in two weeks.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Five men remanded in custody over Turkish Embassy firebombing (27.10.2008)
  Four young Kurds suspected in arson attack against Turkish Embassy (22.10.2008)

Helsingin Sanomat