Dumell: “My case was a bullseye for SUPO”
Matts Dumell
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“The Security Police was a degenerate and politically corrupt ‘police’, which was despised within police ranks as well. This was an opportunity for them to show something”, says journalist Matts Dumell, who was given a prison sentence for espionage 25 years ago.
SUPO and the then President of Finland Mauno Koivisto, who had ascended to the presidency a short time earlier, needed an example that could be used as a warning so that the system of personal contacts with Soviet diplomats could be cleaned away. The Dumell case took place at about the time of the transition of power from President Urho Kekkonen to Mauno Koivisto. The actual investigation into Matts Dumell did not begin until the transition was complete, and the newly-elected President Koivisto gave SUPO chief Seppo Tiitinen the order to investigate.
Dumell was given a suspended sentence of eight months in the Helsinki Court of Appeals, which the Supreme Court turned into a custodial sentence. At the request of President Koivisto, some of the reasons given for the conviction were made public.
Dumell is far from bitter toward Koivisto.
“Finland did not have credibility in foreign policy. Everyone knew that there was a system here that leaked like a sieve”, Dumell says.
In the recently-published book on the history of the Finnish Security Police by historian Kimmo Rentola, it is revealed that at least two of Dumell’s contacts at the Soviet Embassy, Ernst Russak and Aleksi Savin, were KGB heavyweights. Dumell says that the KGB connection of the two came as a complete surprise to him.
The shadow of an espionage conviction has followed Matts Dumell to this day. He says that he hears about it about once a week. At the time, the sentence cost him his family, his home, and his job.
Dumell nevertheless feels that he got some restitution. He says that about ten years ago he got confirmation from inside SUPO and from Finnish military intelligence that he had indeed been made a scapegoat.
More on this subject:
 Ex SUPO-chief denies Dumell espionage investigation was ordered by President Koivisto
Helsingin Sanomat
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