Police Monitored Activists’ Phones, Prompting Questions From Their Own Oversight Body
Translated from Finnish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.
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- The Interior Finland Police Department secretly monitored the phones of at least 10 Elokapina activists to prevent a serious crime.
- Police legality oversight criticized the department’s broad and weak reasoning, according to minutes obtained by Helsingin Sanomat.
- Finland’s Supreme Court is considering the case, with a decision on leave to appeal expected in autumn 2026.
The police’s own legality oversight body has questioned why the Interior Finland Police Department monitored the phones of at least 10 Elokapina activists.
The surveillance targeted the activists on grounds of preventing a serious crime. Oversight officials criticized the police department’s “thin and broad-brush justifications” for the secret monitoring, according to minutes obtained by Helsingin Sanomat.
The documents also suggest that the department treated the activists as one group suspected of crimes rather than as separate individuals. Each police department has its own legal unit to check compliance with the law, while the National Police Board oversees all police departments.
The case is now before Finland’s Supreme Court. A decision on the application for leave to appeal is expected in autumn 2026.
About this summary
Originally published by Helsingin Sanomat in Finnish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.
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