Murder trial hears defendants' explanations on Tuesday

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In the murder trial of the vanished Swedish criminal Volkan Ünsal it was the turn of the defence to give their explanations at Helsinki District Court on Tuesday.
      The five defendants were all allowed to explain for example their drunken ramblings, the disposal of belongings, and the traces of Ünsal’s blood found in the apartment where he was allegedly killed.
      The oldest of the defendants, a 48-year-old professional criminal from Helsinki, had to explain his drunken talk about "the white rifle method" that refers to strangulation, which was heard in one of the taped telephone calls gathered by police from a Helsinki hotel room in November last year.
     
The defendant argued that on the whole the tape is of such bad quality that nobody can make out what is said on it, but it is all mere conjecture. He claimed that the words were just colourful bragging by one convicted criminal to another.
      He also claimed that the last time he saw Volkan Ünsal was in front of Restaurant Mikado when Ünsal got out of his car. Ünsal was carrying cocaine and the ladies were apparently showing an interest in him.
     
According to the the prosecution, however, Ünsal was taken to an apartment in the eastern suburb of Vuosaari, where he was strangled and his body was taken away in a van.
      Another suspect, Ünsal’s 27-year-old childhood friend, confirmed that the man was left in front of Mikado that night.
      Moreover, he claimed to have met with Ünsal in the Esplanade the next day. He also said that afterwards Ünsal travelled to Turku and took a ferry to Sweden under an assumed name on October 17th. That would be one or two days after the alleged time of the murder.
      The blood traces of the alleged victim in the apartment were a result of his excessive use of overly pure cocaine, the 27-year-old explained.
     
The explanation for the burning of a couch and carpet was that he wanted to exact revenge on his landlady for terminating the lease earlier than originally agreed upon. Prosecutors have charged that the reason for the disposal of the furniture was to remove evidence of bloodstains.
      The Swedish criminal of Chilean extraction, who was charged with incitement to murder in that he hired the 27-year-old to do the killing, denied the charges. Furthermore, he claimed that the SEK 60,000 brought to Finland by a courier was related to a car deal.
      The trial will continue under strong police presence in the security chambers of Helsinki District Court until the end of this week.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Four men on trial in murder case, despite lack of body (14.12.2004)

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