3 teenage boys jailed for Koskela murder

The Helsinki District Court on Friday sentenced three teenage boys to different terms of imprisonment for killing another teenage boy at Koskela in Helsinki in December 2020, local media reported.

The court awarded one boy to 10 years and one month imprisonment, another to nine years and 2 months imprisonment and the rest one to eight years and 2 months imprisonment as the allegations of murder, assaults and robberies brought against them were proved beyond doubt, according to the national broadcaster Yle.

The court also fined the convicts EUR 12,000 each and pay the money to the victim's parents as compensation.

All the convicts remained in the custody in pre-trial detention since 10 December 2020.

The convicts, however, have the option to appeal to the higher court against the verdict.

As the convicts are minors, they will be also allowed to appeal for parole after serving one-third of the imprisonment terms, the court said in the verdict.

The three 16-year-old boys killed the victim and dumped the body at an under-construction building in Koskela area of Helsinki on 4 December, 2020.

Earlier, in March this year, the prosecutor demanded 12 years imprisonment of the oldest offender while 11 years imprisonment of the youngest offender. The prosecutor demanded nine years and six months imprisonment of the third suspect, who had also known the victim from the childhood.

All the suspects, born in 2004, are Finnish by birth and they were celebrating the birthday of one of them.

The police, after preliminary investigation, said the deceased was a victim of bullying for a long time by the three suspects, including three violent assaults that resulted in his death.

The police termed the murder sadistic, humiliating, and premeditated.