Murder sentence sought over old crime in Espoo from 1987

print this

Murder charges were filed at the Espoo District Court on Wednesday against a 42-year-old convict, over a homicide that took place in Espoo in December 1987.
      Prosecutors Leena Salovartio and Erkki Huhtala demanded that the man be convicted of murder. According to the indictment, the homicide had been committed in a particularly brutal and cruel way.
      A 42-year-old woman working late was first struck with a heavy object and then strangled with electric cable and further assaulted around the eyes during an apparent burglary that went wrong.
     
The defendant, who was guarded in court by five police officers, denied all accusations, and his legal adviser demanded further investigations into the matter. He said that a lie detector test could prove the man’s innocence.
      The defendant also claimed that he knows who the real killer was. Because the alleged perpetrator has already died, the body should be exhumed, the accused demanded.
     
The National Bureau of Investigation has no essentially new evidence in the old case, but last year the police began to connect facts in a new way.
      The defendant has been suspected of the same crime even previously, and according to the prosecution, he has actually admitted committing the crime during two police interrogations. Moreover, he has told of it to eight individuals. However, later on he has retracted his confessions.
      According to the indictment, the defendant has been aware of certain facts which he could not have known if he were innocent of the crime.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Charges for middle-aged Finnish man over unresolved Espoo killing from 1987 (7.11.2008)

Helsingin Sanomat