The Helsinki Court of Appeal on Thursday ordered the immediate release of Aleksanteri Kivimäki, who had been serving a six-year prison sentence after being convicted of orchestrating a major data breach of the Vastaamo psychotherapy centre.
Kivimäki was seen walking out of the courthouse on Thursday afternoon, amid a gaggle of reporters and photographers.
Following an international manhunt, Kivimäki was initially detained in February 2023.
After a lengthy trial at Helsinki District Court, Kivimäki was handed a six year and three month prison sentence in April 2024 for charges related to the hacking of psychotherapy centre Vastaamo's patient database
The charges he was found guilty of included aggravated data breach, almost 9,600 counts of aggravated invasion of privacy related to the dissemination of information, more than 21,300 counts of attempted aggravated extortion and 20 counts of aggravated blackmail.
During the trial, the court heard how Kivimäki hacked into the firm's database, containing the personal information of an estimated 33,000 people, in autumn 2018. A couple of years later he allegedly attempted to extort money from both Vastaamo and its clients.
'First-time' offender
There were more victims in the case than in any other in Finnish criminal history.
During the trial, a lawyer representing some of the affected patients told the court that a number of the victims had died by suicide after their patient records had been stolen and used in extortion attempts.
As the appeal court began hearing the case in August of this year, his lawyer, Peter Jaari, demanded Kivimäki's release, saying that his client risked being imprisoned longer than his sentence, if the appeal court changes the duration of his prison term.
If that were to occur, the state would be liable to pay Kivimäki compensation for the excess prison time.
Since his initial detainment in 2023 until his release on Thursday, Kivimäki spent around two years and seven months behind bars.
He is considered a first-time offender because his past criminal convictions happened years ago, so he would only end up serving half of his six-year sentence.
Even though the district court's verdict is still not final, the time he spent in prison will count towards his eventual final sentence.
Therefore, Kivimäki would have already served half of the initial sentence within a few months.
