Risk of terrorism increases in Finland: Supo

The Finnish Security Intelligence Service (SUPO) said on Wednesday they found that terrorism-related projects and plans in Finland were more serious than before.

The director of SUPO Antti Pelttari said Finland has now a higher profile in the radical Islamic propaganda, and target persons under surveillance in Finland have more direct connections with terror activities.

"The threat of terrorism in Finland is larger than ever before. But Finland is still one of the safest countries in the world", he said.

SUPO estimated that there are some 350 individuals in Finland "with sympathy to terrorism," an 80 percent increase since 2012. The figure shows an increasing number of them have either taken part in an armed conflict, expressed willingness to participate in armed action or received terrorist training".

SUPO has switched to using a four-tier risk assessment scale. Finland is currently on level two, or elevated threat, out of the four tiers, namely the Low, Elevated, High and Severe threat levels.

SUPO told news agency Lannen Media earlier that there has been no need to apply such a standard threat assessment system in Finland before, "due to the short history of terrorism risks" here.

Special researcher Pekka Hiltunen at SUPO told newspaper Helsingin Sanomat that the change in the profile of Finland in the eyes of the terrorists is "historical". Earlier Finland was perceived neutral and it was fairly unknown.

The Finnish criminal police said on Wednesday it received several notifications related to preparation of terrorism, and part of them were being processed. But no actual complaints of criminality have been received.

In the Finnish police system, the security intelligence passes the information to actual criminal police. And the criminal police assesses whether a police investigation is worth beginning.

Police inspector Timo Kilpelainen from the Central Police Administration told newspaper Helsingin Sanomat that the police has responded well to the increased risk level. "We support the security police with our intelligence activity".

If Finland switches to the next risk level, then the increased police activity will be visible in the streets. In that situation, the rest of the police activity and its cost would be affected", he said.