The trial of a former police sergeant accused of breach of official secrecy and violation of official duty began at Helsinki District Court on Tuesday morning.
According to the prosecutor in the case, the defendant illegally sent messages or images containing confidential information from police registers and official systems on 34 occasions.
The content included extracts from the Helsinki Police Department's daily reports as well as photographs and personal data of persons suspected of crimes.
The information — which usually concerned people of foreign background — was mainly sent to groups on the messaging platform WhatsApp.
Helsinki Police Department sacked the sergeant in 2021 for posting discriminatory messages against racial, religious and political groups.
The prosecutor told the court on Tuesday that one of the messages the defendant shared included a police photo of a suicide victim.
It was allegedly sent to a group called the Vihdin-Karkkilan suojeluskunta (roughly translated as the Vihti-Karkkila Civil Guard, a reference to an area in the Uusimaa region and to the White Guard militias that operated between 1918 and 1944).
Police stated in 2021 that the Vihti-Karkkila Civil Guard was a racist group with a hierarchy and operational procedures. Its members included police officers as well as others in the security sector.
In relation to the charge of violation of official duty, the prosecutor told the court the defendant had kept his service weapon at home during his annual leave without the permission of his employer.
The man has denied the charges.
His defence attorney told the court that he admitted sending messages to the WhatsApp groups, but argued he had a reason to do so — saying the defendant believed that sharing the information with other members of the group was intended to highlight matters that were pertinent to the activities of the group members in their own professions.
"It was a matter of exchanging information between people in the security sector. It is the 'way of the world'," the defence lawyer said, adding that the image of the suicide victim was sent "by accident".
