Convictions in Vantaa Korso apartment block fire – 15-year-old receives nearly three years imprisonment
Helsinki District Court has sentenced three 15-year-old boys to prison for the Korso fire and drug offences. Attempted murder charges were dropped.
Convictions in Korso apartment block fire: minors sentenced to imprisonment, murder charges dropped
Helsinki District Court has delivered its verdict in the criminal case concerning the devastating apartment block fire in Vantaa's Korso district. According to Iltalehti, the court sentenced the 15-year-old boy who set the fire to two years and seven months imprisonment for aggravated criminal damage and aggravated drug offence.
Two other 15-year-old boys were sentenced to three years and nine months imprisonment for aggravated drug offence. In all three cases, the court took into account as a mitigating factor that they were under 18 years old at the time of the offence. In the drug offences, the court further found that the boys had acted in a "dependent position" – they had followed instructions they were given and had not acted as organisers.
The prosecutor sought convictions against two of the boys for attempted murder. The District Court rejected these charges, despite the alleged target of the so-called contract murder being in the apartment at the time of the offence. According to the court, the evidence was insufficient: the boy who set the fire could not consider the death of the person in the apartment to be a "probable consequence of the act". The court justified its decision on the grounds that the fire was set in the stairwell rather than in the apartment itself, and that from the ground-floor apartment it would have been possible to escape through the terrace as well. Additionally, the fire was set in the evening, when people are expected to be awake.
The apartment block was set on fire in Vantaa's Korso on 17 December 2025. An explosive fire broke out in the stairwell at a moment when 17 people were in the staircase. Behind the incident was violent debt collection: the boy who set the fire claimed the intention had been merely to frighten the debtor.
The criminal case examined by the District Court consisted of three separate parts. The first concerned aggravated robbery on 13 December 2025 in Helsinki, in connection with which the home security of an innocent family with children was violated and a firearm was used. The second part was the Korso fire on 17 December. The third concerned serious drug offences in December 2025.
In addition to the underage boys, the court sentenced two adult men to suspended prison sentences for robbery and aggravated breach of home security. The charges against two other men were dropped entirely.
According to police understanding, behind the violent debt collection is a criminal known as Ridu, a 21-year-old man residing abroad who has previously been convicted in Finland of manslaughter and who is in custody in absentia. Helsinki police consider him to be the leader of the 7side street gang, which is identified with Malmö, and suspect he has led the gang from abroad. According to the Central Criminal Police, the whole matter extends into the Swedish underworld. The CCP suspects the leader of the Foxtrot gang, Rawa "Kurdikettu" Majidi, of being the principal organiser of the drug crimes.
Iltalehti does not publish the names of the minors sentenced to long prison terms.
Source: Iltalehti