Finnish police and domestic intelligence have arrested a 21-year-old suspected radical Islamic extremist who had procured materials on developing explosives to train to carry out a terrorist attack.
Finland’s National Bureau of Investigation, the Helsinki police and the Finnish Security Intelligence Service were involved in the investigation into the 21-year-old suspect, who is said to be a Spanish citizen.
The man came on the radar of investigators in connection to another case the Helsinki Polci Department had been investigating, broadcaster Yle reports.
“The role of the Helsinki Police Department has been significant. It is a great thing that we have been able to investigate the matter at such an early stage,” head of the investigation, Detective Chief Inspector Masi Puolakka of the National Bureau of Investigation, said.
“We suspect that the man has acquired and familiarized himself with the material in order to train himself for a terrorist act. The operation has been long-lasting. It started in 2019 and ended with a catch-up in December last year,” he added.
The suspect is also believed to have been a member of various groups that distribute Islamic extremist propaganda and may have expressed an interest in travelling overseas to fight alongside terror groups but DCI Puolakka has not confirmed the details.
“The suspect has denied the crime. He has told the police that he has been looking for information on Islamic extremist issues due to his own thirst for information,” he said.
While radical Islamic terrorism poses a threat to Finland, cases are far rarer than in other European Union member states, such as Sweden, Germany or France.
The only radical Islamic terror conviction in Finland took place in 2018 when Moroccan asylum seeker Abderrahman Bouanane was sentenced to life in prison for two terrorism-related murders and eight attempted murders when he went on a stabbing rampage in the city of Turku in 2017.
According to prosecutors, the attack was motivated by bombings in the Syrian city of Raqqa that had been carried out by a Western military alliance.
Last year, Bouanane made headlines in Finland again after he has been brought before a court for allegedly attacking prison guards, biting one of them.