A 22-year-old Finnish man has been remanded in custody in Tallinn on suspicion of involvement in a grisly killing that was revealed in the Estonian capital last week.
Estonian police arrested the man already on the evening of December 12th, following an international request by Finnish authorities that he be apprehended on suspicion of a number of high-profile fraud cases.
The Estonian authorities confirmed on Tuesday that the man who was found slain and partially hacked into pieces in a Tallinn apartment some days ago is a Finnish citizen born in 1984. The victim was also suspected of involvement in two fraud cases in Finland. Apparently the victim and the man now being held knew each other.
The victim was a tenant in the apartment, and the killing came to light when the landlord found the body - cut up and wrapped in plastic sacks - nearly a week ago, last Wednesday evening (December 14th). He had been dead for a couple of days.
According to the Estonian central criminal police, the man had first been shot and then dismembered for eventual disposal. The suspect in the case has been remanded in custody for six months. He has thus far refused to communicate with the authorities.
The victim was the main suspect in a fake invoicing scam that attempt to milk funds from as many as 100,000 firms by direct mailing letters that alleged to offer membership in a charitable organisation for EUR 300/year. The police demanded that the man be arrested and remanded on suspicion of involvement in this swindle, but when he could not be located he was remanded in his absence by the Helsinki District Court in September. An international arrest warrant was in the process of being drafted for him.
A second scam that the young man was believed to have been connected with concerned an illegal fund-raising operation carried out between 2001 and 2003, in which as much as EUR 2.5 million is thought to have been gleaned on behalf of cancer sufferers. Only just over one percent of the money collected actually went to the designated good cause.
As it turns out, the Estonian police did not have to look far for a possible culprit for the slaying, since they already had the 22-year-old Finnish man in a Tallinn holding cell after receiving a warrant from their Finnish colleagues over the fraud cases.
According to Estonia TV reports, the man resisted arrest, attempted to escape in his car, and drew a gun.
It is thought that his arrest prevented him from finally disposing of the chopped-up remains of the victim, whose body was only found after the alleged perpetrator was taken into police custody. Police believe the actual killing took place on the 11th or 12th of December, and a spokesman for the Estonian prosecution service stated that there was adequate evidence to hold the man on suspicion of homicide.
Since the prime suspect has refused to talk to the police, no motive has been put forward for the killing as yet. |