Lithuanian police misled court in Anom operation – evidence admitted nonetheless
The Court of Appeal for Eastern Finland established that Lithuanian police deliberately deceived the court in the Trojan Shield operation. Anom messages were nevertheless accepted as evidence.
Court of Appeal for Eastern Finland: Anom evidence admissible despite court deception
The Court of Appeal for Eastern Finland ruled on Wednesday that Lithuanian police intentionally misled the court handling warrant matters in a covert operation involving Anom phones. The court regarded the conduct as a "rather serious" violation of law.
Yle MOT revealed last year that permission for the broad Trojan Shield operation had been obtained by deceiving a Lithuanian court. This is reportedly the first time a Finnish court has taken a position on irregularities that emerged in the operation.
The FBI created the Anom phone network at the turn of the 2020s to eavesdrop on criminal communications. The operation led to extensive seizures and arrests also in Finland.
However, the Court of Appeal held that the violation of law was not sufficiently serious to place Anom messages under a prohibition on use as evidence. The reasoning stated among other things that the FBI's surveillance targeted criminals rather than an indiscriminate segment of the population.
The Court of Appeal upheld the ruling by the District Court of Päijät-Häme, by which Esko Eklund, former president of the Cannonball motorcycle club, was sentenced to 13 years' imprisonment for serious drug offences and a serious firearms offence. Eklund was apprehended in Iraq in 2024 and extradited to Finland in 2025.
The case dealt with by the Court of Appeal for Eastern Finland is just one of dozens of trials related to the Anom operation. The main case is being handled by the Court of Appeal for Helsinki, which is due to deliver its ruling and decide on the request for a prohibition on use of evidence by the end of June.
Source: Yle