Rusi lawyers say Security Police failed in basic task

The lawyers for Ambassador Alpo Rusi, who is suing the state for mental anguish caused by accusations that he had spied on behalf of the East German espionage agency Stasi in the 1970s, say that the Finnish Security Police (SUPO) failed to do its job right.
      The trial, in which Rusi is seeking EUR 500,000 in monetary damages from the state, began on Monday afternoon at Helsinki District Court. The damages would be for mental anguish and monetary losses.
     
According to Rusi's legal team, SUPO made mistakes either deliberately, or through serious carelessness.
      "The Security Police has, above all, failed to conduct its basic inquiries, and gone to war with guns blazing, so to speak, and did not investigate at all what the GDR intelligence material contained, or the significance of the cards in it", said Olli Santanen, one of Rusi's legal team.
      Santanen refers to the infamous Rosenholz material, and to cards F16 and F22, as well as code XV/11/69. According to the legal team, there was a card for Rusi in the Stasi archive, but that it was not an operator card.
      Rusi's lawyers say that if Rusi had been an HVA contact of Stasi's external espionage, he would have had a separate operation, and register opened in his name.
      In their view, SUPO misinterpreted the cards.
      Lawyer Zacharias Sundström says that there were no grounds to suspect Alpo Rusi of espionage.
      State Prosecutor Jarmo Rautakoski decided in 2003 that there are no grounds to prosecute Rusi.
      Rusi feels that SUPO launched a groundless investigation against him in 2002, on suspicion of spying for the former East Germany. He also wants compensation for the fact that the suspected aggravated espionage was leaked to the media.
     
The state rejects Rusi's demands.
      In the its rebuttal the state said that suspicions against Rusi were based on statements by a Stasi officer, and on the large number of documents. Before interviewing the Stasi officer, SUPO already knew that the code name "Pekka" had handed dozens of documents to East Germany. In the state's view, justification for an investigation was clearly established on this basis.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Supreme Police Command to study Stasi material of Security Police (10.8.2007)
  Debate over disclosure of Stasi material heats up as Security Police director resigns (30.7.2007)
  Court rejects Alpo Rusi call to publish Stasi lists (26.4.2007)
  Parliamentary Ombudsman: Security Police did not break law in Rusi investigation (4.2.2005)
  Most damaging part of Stasi intelligence-gathering was flow of information to KGB (6.5.2004)
  Alpo Rusi: More than a year of silent torment over espionage allegations (16.9.2003)
  Alpo Rusi accuses Security Police of political conspiracy (16.9.2003)
  State Prosecutor: no evidence of aggravated espionage in Rusi case (12.6.2003)