Slovenia sends diplomatic note to Finland over YLE bribery allegations

Patria: “We have no information that MOT claims would have any foundation”

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The government of Slovenia, with Prime Minister Janez Janša in the forefront, has pressed on with planned action against the Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE) and its investigative television programme MOT.
      On Thursday, Slovenia submitted an official diplomatic note to Finland over the recent MOT programme alleging that bribes were paid by the Finnish armaments manufacturer Patria to the Slovenian PM in return for contracts. In addition, Prime Minister Janša was in direct contact with Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen.
     
Prime Minister Janša presented the note to Finnish Ambassador Birgitta Stenius-Mladenov in the Slovenian capital Ljubljana on Thursday. The Ambassador is especially familiar with the matter, in that her husband is the Patria representative in Ljubljana.
      According to the Finnish News Agency STT, the Slovenian Foreign Ministry says in the note that it was surprised at the serious allegations which, lacking any real proof, are “intolerable”.
      Janša has denied claims of bribery. He points out that bribery would not even have benefited him in any way, because decisions on the purchase of Patria armoured vehicles were made by decision-makers other than himself.
     
Janša sees the claims as a part of the current Slovenian parliamentary election campaign. There have been allegations put forward in Slovenia that the real reason is to help the country’s opposition to win in the election a couple of weeks from now.
      The Prime Minister continues to deny the allegations in the story, and warns that the programme could harm the friendly relations that prevail between Finland and Slovenia.
      Already on Wednesday the government of Slovenia said that it would file a lawsuit against YLE’s “responsible people” over the allegation that Patria had paid bribes to Prime Minister Janša.
      Verkkoapila, the on-line publication of the Finnish Centre Party, reported on Thursday that Prime Minister Janez Janša had contacted Prime Minister Vanhanen and Minister of Finance Jyrki Katainen.
      Vanhanen said that the had told Janša that the Finnish government cannot interfere in YLE programming in any way.
     
Patria issued its own comment on Thursday, saying that “Patria has no information that the claims concerning certain people that were made in the programme would be valid”.
     
     
Additional links to this ongoing story can be found from the article from September 4th linked below.


Links:
  Patria AMV (Wikipedia)
  Slovenian government intends to sue YLE management over Patria bribery claims (4.9.2008)

Helsingin Sanomat