A Helsinki man who manufactured numerous weapons and explosives at home received a suspended sentence of one and a half years at Helsinki District Court on Friday.
Between 2010 and 2016, the man had collected an arsenal including automatic firearms, gas-pressure weapons and pepper spray. In addition, nine pipe bombs, two tasers, and four blasting caps were found in the man's possession.
The man, described as a middle-aged Finn, had manufactured the weapons and explosives himself. He had also gathered information about detonating bombs and conducted test detonations in a nearby field.
He was convicted of a felony firearms offense and an explosive offense. In addition, the court convicted the man of drunk driving in 2017 and unlawful use of a vehicle.
The weapons and explosives were found in the garage of the man's home in Suutarila, a district of northern Helsinki near the Vantaa border, in 2016.
Police completed a preliminary investigation into the case the following year.
The man had been free while awaiting trial.
Fake police uniform
A handmade replica of a police uniform was also found on the premises.
The prosecutor argued that the man had acquired the disguise, bombs and guns to commit a crime.
However, the court dismissed the charge of preparing for a crime because this could not be proven.
It estimated that the 23 kilos of explosives found in the man's home would have been enough to make a bomb that could have killed dozens of people and injured hundreds of others, though. It could have caused a building structure to collapse and caused significant damage over a large area.
Still, the court decreed that the mere possession of the objects and substances was not enough to prove that the man intended to carry out an attack.
Collected in a "manic frenzy"
The man said that he had collected thousands of objects over the years in a "manic frenzy", ordering most of them online.
He claimed that he had intended to use the bombs as fireworks.
Numerous licensed weapons for sport shooting and hunting were also found in his house, as well as hundreds of legal fireworks.
In addition to the police uniform, several other outfits were found in the man's home, including a black Nazi officer's uniform. There were also mannequins wearing some the outfits.
"There was some strange attraction to those costumes,” the man told the court.
