Security Police running the gauntlet

COLUMN

Seppo Nevala

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By Keijo Himanen
     
      The top leaders of the Security Police (SUPO) are officially back at work, although the head of the unit, Seppo Nevala, took an extra week off. Last Thursday he gave the victory sign, and was more than relieved now that the excruciating months are finally over. The reactions of number-two man Petri Knape were not seen on camera, but for the section chief, who is much younger than Nevala, the acquittal must have come as a great relief.
     
The Security Police would like to return to normal everyday life. However, the fact is that everyday life is not the same as it was before Nevala and Knape were suspended from their posts. SUPO's shield now has a stain that needs to be polished away one way or other.
      SUPO is now in a position that is somewhat similar to that of the Supreme Court in the late 1990s. At that time there was a raging controversy about summer cottage deals of one of the court's judges, Eeva Vuori. Claims of an under-the-table payment of the purchase led to a police investigation, but the prosecutor did not find cause to press charges, and the case was dropped.
      However, the matter did not end there. The Parliamentary Ombudsman later said that charges should have been filed. However, this was no longer possible, because the statute of limitations had run out. Eeva Vuori's later actions in public added to the confusion. The Supreme Court was in a crisis, which Olavi Heinonen, the court's President at the time, tried to clear up as best he could.
      Heinonen's task was not made any easier by the spat over arbitration. Corporations often resort to the procedure when they are unable to resolve disputes in any other way. The experienced jurists who serve on the Supreme Court are in high demand to serve as arbitrators. However, this is not without problems, because of the secrecy involved. It was seen to endanger the independence and impartiality of the court.
     
The Supreme Court is an institution whose decisions and actions rarely come in for criticism. The debate over arbitration procedure and the case of Eeva Vuori knocked the court off of its pedestal of untouchability where it had stood for decades. In recent years the Supreme Court has been one court among others. It has had to live with the loss of its reputation for years. The worst controversy has faded, but the marks are still there.
      Like the Supreme Court, SUPO has enjoyed the tranquility afforded to it by its special position. Now that this status is gone, SUPO is under fire from all directions. The media is hounding it, the top leaders of the police, including the Minister of the Interior, are thinking what should be done with SUPO, and some Members of Parliament have taken the Security Police under special scrutiny.
      The credibility of SUPO as a police unit using clean methods got a bad dent when the Court of Appeals imposed a fine on the chief of its northern regional unit for violating both communications privacy and official duty. In such a situation, the acquittal of the top leadership does not help much. The Sonera telesnooping case got an unpleasant additional twist from SUPO's point of view.
     
The Alpo Rusi espionage case also did not put any feathers into SUPO's cap. SUPO believed that it could prove the allegations of espionage, but that was not to be. The investigation began promisingly, but came to an abrupt halt, and the evidence that it would have needed never materialised. The Prosecutor-General did not find sufficient cause to prosecute.
      The Security Police played a high-stakes game when it began investigating the case as aggravated espionage. It had to do so, because the events in the indictment were so old that the statute of limitations had run out on all of the lesser charges. The starting point was fascinating: the Rusi Brothers, Alpo and Jukka, were found to be behind a code name in the files of East Germany's intelligence service Stasi. Jukka Rusi, who died last autumn, admitted that he had given a few documents to the East Germans, but Alpo denied everything.
      When it launched its preliminary investigation, SUPO had no idea what kinds of setbacks were in store. What was worst was that the preliminary investigation, which was well-founded as such, did not lead to charges. And SUPO certainly could not anticipate what kind of counterattack Alpo Rusi would launch.
      With the Rusi incident, SUPO walked into an unprecedented publicity mill, from which it did not emerge unscathed. With his many accusations, Rusi managed to cast doubt on the credibility and reliability of SUPO's activities. SUPO helplessly watched the brewing storm of public opinion. The situation was not helped at all by the fact that the top leadership of the institution was unexpectedly put on the shelf last autumn.
      The fresh National Police Commissioner, Markku Salminen, was in a tough spot when he tried to shake the mantle of negative public opinion off SUPO's shoulders. Because of his job, Salminen is in a key position. He is helped by the fact that as the new Police Commissioner, he has not dirtied his hands in SUPO affairs.
      In the Rusi case, SUPO did what it was supposed to do. There was good reason to launch a preliminary investigation. There was no cause for criticism in the investigation, even though Rusi had claimed that there was. The Parliamentary Ombudsman has given SUPO a clean bill of health. Nevertheless, the damage had already been done.
     
In the future, the Security Police will increasingly be seen as a police unit among others. Scrutiny of the legality of police activities will target SUPO just like the rest of the police organisation. The demand from Deputy Chancellor of Justice Jaakko Jonkka for more effective scrutiny of secret police activities on all fronts has not fallen on deaf ears.
      The Salpa system created in the telecommunications unit of the National Bureau of Investigation is an effective reform. All requests for secret wiretaps will go to telecommunications companies through the system. The system also monitors the use of false purchases of illegal goods and other undercover police activities. The system also applies to the Security Police.
      The activities of SUPO have not been at their most efficient during the time of the suspension of its top leadership. The machinery must be brought back to full speed, given a number of upcoming major international events. This summer's World Championships in Athletics will also provide work for the Security Police. However, the most massive effort will be in the autumn of 2006. That is when the heads of state of 38 countries of Europe and Asia will gather in Tampere for a summit meeting.
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 4.4.2005


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Parliamentary Ombudsman: Security Police did not break law in Rusi investigation (4.2.2005)
  Appeals court acquits top Security Police figures in telephone privacy case (31.3.2005)

KEIJO HIMANEN / Helsingin Sanomat
keijo.himanen@hs.fi