Police in Espooo suspect 11 people of writing libellous comments about Susan Ruusunen (formerly Kuronen) on Internet message boards. Most of the writers of suspect messages have escaped without charges, because police were not able to find out their identity.
Police sent its investigation materials to prosecutors on Friday for a decision on a possible indictment.
The police say that the suspects wrote libellous comments on Susan Ruusunen early this year. It was at the same time that a book by Ruusunen on her relationship with Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen (Centre) was published. Timo Seppälä of the Espoo Police says that the suspects are middle-aged men and women who live in nine different communities.
Police do not believe that any of those involved are active in party politics.
Some of the suspects have admitted to committing libel, while others deny ever writing the messages they are suspected of.
The criminal investigation began after Ruusunen issued a complaint. The police asked the local district court for permission to trace the writers of 38 messages on the basis of the IP addresses used, but the court ordered the service provider to disclose information concerning only 26 messages.
Police could not ascertain the identities of the writers of 15 messages. Seppälä says that in eight cases the messages were written on a computer that could have been used by several people.
"With one, the trail ran cold. In 18 cases the writer remained unknown for one reason or another. There were many reasons, because there are many service providers, and many kinds of keepers of registries", Timo Seppälä says.
Ruusunen considers it a victory that the police were able to trace down at least some of the people behind the Internet messages. She has not yet decided if she will ask for monetary damages if the case goes to court.
Ruusunen herself has been charged with spreading information in her recently published book that violates Prime Minister Vanhanen's right to privacy.
