Vantaa Prison management and guards face court – 21-year-old murdered through torture
The former head of Vantaa Prison and six other officials are charged with misconduct in office. A 21-year-old inmate was murdered through torture in a transit cell in January 2022.
Prison officials charged in young man's torture murder
According to Ilta-Sanomat, a trial began at the East Uusimaa District Court in which seven former employees of Vantaa Prison are charged with misconduct in office. The charges relate to a torture murder that took place in January 2022, in which the victim was a 21-year-old inmate.
Among the accused are then prison director Tommi Saarinen, 53, and deputy director Jaakko Jokinen, 57, who was responsible for security. Both are charged with breach of official duty. Additionally, five other men who worked at the prison – aged 40, 48, 57, 60 and 67 – stand in the dock. They face charges of breach of official duty or negligent breach of official duty. All accused have denied guilt.
A 57-year-old guard is also charged with assault as a failure to act, an indirect omission offence. The charge means that he would have had an obligation based on his position to prevent the crime.
The trial seeks to answer a central question: could the personnel have prevented the murder?
The victim was a man convicted of a sexual offence who had been placed in a transit cell with Abshir Muye, 23. Muye initiated the acts by raping the victim with a toilet brush handle and continued the violence the following morning. He then called Perttu Pyynönen, 28, into the cell.
The pair tortured and humiliated the victim between 25 and 27 January: they beat, kicked and cut the victim, burned him with cigarettes and boiling water, and tore his skin. The victim was forced to swallow cigarettes and drink cleaning fluid. In the final stages, he was ordered to write a suicide note.
Muye and Pyynönen were sentenced to life imprisonment. A risk assessment determined them to be extremely dangerous.
Source: Ilta-Sanomat