Police are not allowed to use material they took when they raided a journalist’s home while investigating a leak from the Defence Forces, ruled the Supreme Court on Friday.
They had recovered memory sticks when they searched the reporter’s home after she had written a story based on leaked information from the Defence Forces about a branch of Finnish military intelligence.
They have not yet examined the material held on the memory sticks, and the court’s decision overruled a previous ruling by a lower court that the police could use them in their investigation.
Leaked documents
In December 2017 Helsingin Sanomat published a story on a unit at the Tikkakoski air base that was based in part on leaked documents.
The National Bureau of Investigation suspects the newspaper of publishing classified information and the suspected leak of documents is being investigated as a breach of official secrecy.
The day after the story was published, police raided the reporter’s home. A court had previously ruled that the search was lawful, but the question of how the material could be used was left for Friday’s judgement.
STT reports that one suspect in the case is the former head of Intelligence for the Defence Forces, Georgij Alafuzoff. Police have not confirmed or commented on his possible connection to the matter.
