Finnish man convicted of organising kidnapping in Colombia
Three year sentence handed down by Turku District Court
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A Finnish 42-year-old man has been given a three-year prison sentence in connection with the kidnapping of a young Finnish man in the village of Luruaco in Colombia last spring.
Turku District Court found that Timo Tapio Mustonen from Kangasala planned the kidnapping and recruited four local gunmen to carry out the operation.
The kidnapper and the victim had met through a mutual Finnish acquaintance a couple of years ago. They ran a farm there, which was financed by the parents of the kidnapping victim.
Mustonen made a ransom demand to the parents of the victim. Finally a ransom of about EUR 50,000 was paid.
The defendant denied the allegations, saying that he was kidnapped himself, and he was forced to serve as a go-between in getting the ransom. He said that he only wanted to collect money to secure the freedom of the victim.
The court did not find the man’s story to be credible, noting that the money ended up in Mustonen’s possession.
In addition to his prison sentence, Mustonen was ordered to pay the victim of the kidnapping and his parents a total of EUR 100,000 in damages.
The victim said that the gunmen kept him prisoner in different places over a period of two weeks. He said that the armed men did not get their money, and waited for their “boss” to give the order to release him. Finally the gunmen became frustrated and released the victim when he promised to give them a microwave oven, among other things.
Another factor hurting the defendant’s credibility was that he had been in Colombia under a false identity, which he used because of an international warrant that had been issued for his arrest. He had escaped from a police car in Turku in 2004, when he had been arrested on suspicion of committing economic crimes.
The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) suspects that other Finnish citizens might also be involved in the kidnapping. However, they are still at large.
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 25.11.2009 - TODAY |
 Finnish man convicted of organising kidnapping in Colombia
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