Rusi Affair: Prosecutor says he was pressured by Security Police

Rusi accused SUPO of Soviet-style harassment

Alpo Rusi

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Prosecutor Olli Santanen of Jyväskylä District Court says that he received an intimidating telephone call from Harri Sarvanto, head of counter-espionage at the Finnish Security Police (SUPO). The call came after Santanen had written a letter to the editor of Helsingin Sanomat about the investigation into alleged espionage by Ambassador Alpo Rusi.
      In the call, which Santanen said involved very high pressure, Sarvanto reacted to the letter, which dismissed the handling of the Rusi case as a farce. He said that the tone of the call was "anything but collegial". He also said that it is not normal procedure for a head of counter-espionage to contact the writer of a letter to the editor.
      Helsingin Sanomat was not able to reach Harri Sarvanto for a comment.
     
After the incident, Rusi himself approached Sarvanto by mail, expressing concern about the menacing tone of the call.
      Rusi urged Sarvanto to take the criticism, and not to "attack good citizens once again with Soviet-style secret police harassment methods".
      Rusi forwarded copies of his letter to a large number of influential Finns.
      In May 2002 SUPO began interrogating Rusi, a former Presidential aide, on suspicion of aggravated espionage on behalf of East Germany.
      The investigation came out in public on a television news broadcast in September 2002. Already in the spring, SUPO had reported about the investigation to President Tarja Halonen, Prime Minister Paavo Lipponen, and Interior Minister Ville Itälä. Itälä informed Centre Party Chairman Esko Aho.
     
In June 2003 State Prosecutor Jarmo Rautkoski decided not to prosecute Rusi. In July 2003 Rusi sent a complaint to the Parliamentary Ombudsman asking her to rule if unlawful acts had been committed when people who did not have the right to know of the investigation were informed of it.
      The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) investigated the matter at the Ombudsman's request. In February 2005 the Ombudsman ruled that Rusi's suspicions of illegalities were without foundation.
      The NBI was unable to determine how the information of the investigation into Rusi's alleged espionage activities was leaked to the media. Santanen says that he only met Rusi once, when he had written about his case in the newspaper Keskisuomalainen.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Parliamentary Ombudsman: Security Police did not break law in Rusi investigation (4.2.2005)
  Itälä defends decision to inform opposition leader of Rusi espionage investigation (14.1.2005)

Helsingin Sanomat