Steen Viktor Christensen (born 1964) is a Danish criminal, who was sentenced in Denmark in 1992 to twelve years in prison for numerous bank robberies, hostage taking, and rape. [1] In autumn 1997, Christensen was allowed to go on an unguarded prison furlough, during which he escaped to Finland.
On 22 October 1997, Christensen robbed the Hotel Palace in Helsinki, and during his escape from the hotel, he shot and killed two police officers, sergeant Eero Holsti and senior constable Antero Palo, on Tehtaankatu. The incident caused an unprecedented manhunt in Finland. Christensen was caught in Hämeenlinna, when he was leaving the Hotel Vaakuna. He had been living in the hotel under the name Kim Anderssen.
On trial at the Helsinki district court, Christensen was assisted by the lawyer Aarno Arvela. Christensen immediately admitted guilt for the two murders and announced that he did not want to appeal his sentence. [2]
Despite his protests, Christensen was sent to a mental health examination in the Niuvanniemi mental hospital. He spent 21 days in the hospital, after which the examination was cancelled. The reason for this was Christensen's refusal to undergo any kind of psychological tests or examinations. [3] Despite the cancellation of the examination, the Finnish judicial centre of health care (TEO) made a statement about Christensen's mental health. According to the statement, Christensen acted out of full reason and was a dangerous repeat offender.
Christensen was sentenced to life imprisonment, and is serving it at the Herstedvester prison in Denmark. He was also sentenced to pay the families of the police officers he killed, the state treasury, and the watchman at the Hotel Palace a total of almost 275,000 Finnish mark (about 46,300 euro) and to pay a life support of 3873 Finnish mark (about 651.40 euro) per month to one underaged child. The sum consists mainly of family pensions and compensation for mental suffering. As well as the costs for the biggest criminal chase ever in Finland, the state had to pay the trial costs of over 62,500 Finnish mark (about 10 500 euro). Reporter Matts Dumell interviewed Christensen in the Hämeenlinna prison four days before he was transferred to Denmark. The interview was shown in the Rikosraportti program on Nelonen.
The incident led to a great deal of discussion in Denmark about what kind of prisoners, and under what conditions, should be allowed to go on vacation from prison.
In prison, Christensen married a Finnish woman in 2000 who gave birth to their child. [4] Some sources claim that his wife is a former cross-country skier named Miia.
The Herstedvester prison, which houses some of Denmark's most dangerous criminals, has special arrangements specifically to prevent Christensen from escaping. Because of this, the Danish Ministry of Justice gave a separate fund of four million Danish kroner (about 500,000 euro) to prepare the prison before Christensen was transferred to Herstedvester.
The Finnish rap musician Seppo Lampela originally chose Steen Christensen as his artist name, but changed it to Steen1 after getting his first record deal, because of too much controversy.
Sanna Riitta Liisa Sillanpää is a Finnish woman who shot three men to death with a rented 9mm Beretta 92FS semi-automatic pistol on 21 February 1999 in a shooting range in Albertinkatu, Helsinki, and wounded another man, who received lifetime injuries. One man present was not harmed. One of the dead was the shooting club's 23-year-old supervisor.
WinCapita, previously WinClub and GiiClub, was a Finnish Internet-based Ponzi scheme that advertised itself as a private investment club engaged in currency trading. In reality, it was a bucket shop like many other foreign exchange fraud schemes. It operated mainly in Finland, with a smaller number of members also in Sweden. The operation collected about 100 million euros from more than 10,000 investors, probably the largest fraud in Finnish history.
Mikael Storsjö is a Finnish IT entrepreneur, journalist and non-governmental organization activist. He is a board member of FINROSFORUM. He is known for his clashes with the Finnish and Swedish authorities concerning the hosting of the Kavkaz Center's website on his servers. In 2011–2012, he has also been involved in a court case, in which he was found guilty of arranging illegal entry into Finland of 25 Chechens.
Presidential elections were held in Finland in January and February 2012. The first round took place on 22 January 2012 with advance voting between 11 and 17 January. Since no candidate received a majority of the vote, a second round was held on 5 February, with advance voting between 25 and 31 January. Sauli Niinistö was elected the President of Finland for a term from 1 March 2012 until 1 March 2018.
Jenna Lepomäki was an 18-year-old Finnish woman, who was found dead in Fuengirola, Spain, on 6 October 2011.
François Bazaramba is a Rwandan sentenced to life imprisonment in Finland for participating in the Rwandan genocide in 1994. The Bazaramba case is historic in Finnish legal history because it was the first time anyone was sentenced under Finland's "crimes against humanity" laws since the international norms against genocide were implemented in national law. The case was appealed up to the Supreme Court of Finland, which upheld the conviction.
Sunny Car Center was a planned car sales centre, planned to be built at the 27.5 hectare site between the highway and the railroad in Kirstula, Hämeenlinna, Finland. Plans for the centre included about 75 thousand square metres on several floors for car sales and associated activities. Had the centre been completed it would have become the largest car sales centre in Europe. The project underwent several difficulties, and it was finally abandoned when the sales of the land lot necessary for its construction was cancelled. The CEO of the project was Markku Ritaluoma. In 2023, Ritaluoma was sentenced to two years and six months of unconditional imprisonment for two aggravated frauds, aggravated debtor dishonesty and two aggravated tax frauds.
The 2017 Turku attack took place on 18 August 2017 at around 16:02–16:05 (UTC+3) when 10 people were stabbed in central Turku, Southwest Finland. Two women were killed in the attack and eight people sustained injuries.
Michael Maria Penttilä is a Finnish serial killer. According to Finnish crime magazine Alibi, he is the only Finn that fits FBI's description of a serial killer.
Vastaamo was a Finnish private psychotherapy service provider founded in 2008. On 21 October 2020, Vastaamo announced that its patient database had been hacked. Private information obtained by the perpetrators was used in an attempt to extort Vastaamo and, later, its clients. The extorters demanded 40 bitcoins, roughly worth 450,000 euros at the time, and threatened to publish the records if the ransom was not paid. To add pressure to their demands, the extorters published hundreds of patient records a day on a Tor message board.
Marko Asser Hirsma was a Finnish musician, outlaw biker and gangster who served as the first national president of the Bandidos Motorcycle Club in Finland.
The Koskela teen murder was a homicide that happened in Koskela, Helsinki, Finland on 4 December 2020. The victim was a 16-year-old whose name has yet to be released by Finnish law enforcement due to privacy regulations. The police charged three boys, all aged 16, with the murder. They were incarcerated in the Helsinki District Court on 10 December. The perpetrators and the victim knew each other beforehand. According to the police, the motive for the act was to punish the victim for some earlier activity.
The Cannonball Motorcycle Club (CMC) is an outlaw motorcycle club in Finland and Estonia. Founded in Helsinki in 1991, the club has eleven chapters and a membership of over two-hundred. Cannonball MC is designated as an organized crime group by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).
Ruben Oskar Auervaara was a notorious Finnish conman and thief. He became famous by cheating money from women he met through newspaper announcements, by pretending to intend to marry them. His surname has become an archetypal name in the Finnish language, meaning a deceptive charming trickster.
Snacky was a small Finnish fast food chain operating in the Helsinki capital area. Founded in 1980, the chain was operating until 1995, and then again under a new owner from 2007 to 2015. As the chain went bankrupt, its owner was sentenced to jail for severe financial crimes. In 2021 Snacky returned again, now as a virtual restaurant, where Snacky products can be bought through Foodora and Wolt. Snacky does not have its own restaurant premises.
Kalle Juhonpoika Hakala was a Finnish newspaper editor, politician and member of the Parliament of Finland, the national legislature of Finland. A member of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), he represented Mikkeli Province between October 1934 and May 1947. He had previously represented Mikkeli Province from February 1911 to May 1918 and from May 1924 to August 1933. He was imprisoned for a year following the end of the Finnish Civil War.
Urpo Rinne is a Finnish former professor of neurology of University of Turku and the former director of Turku University Hospital clinic of neurology. He was sentenced to prison in 2001 for embezzlement of research funds. An investigation by the Finnish National Authority for Medicolegal Affairs found that he had engaged in unethical medical practice, and as a result his right to practice medicine was limited. Criminal charges for patient mistreatment relating to his actions were never filed due to statute of limitations.
The 2016 Helsinki Asema-aukio assault happened on 10 September 2016, when Jesse Tornianen, a member of the Finnish Resistance Movement, a Neo-Nazi organisation, attacked a passer-by who had argued with the demonstrators and spit on them with a jumping kick. Because of the kick, the 28-year-old Jimi Joonas Karttunen fell down, hit his head to the street and suffered a cerebral haemorrhage. Karttunen was rushed to the Töölö Hospital, which he later left despite the hospital staff's recommendation to stay at the hospital. He died about a week after the assault on 16 September 2016 at the Meilahti Hospital. The perpetrator had a criminal background.