Paananen: Russia spreads wrong information about Mikael Storsjo who helped refugees from Chechnya in Finland

The information about Mikael Storsjo and his help to refugees from Chechnya, which appears in Russia, is often just repeating the words of Storsjo's opponents, said Kerkko Paananen, secretary of the human rights organization "Finnish-Russian Civil Forum". He believes that the information from people, who have close relations with Russian authorities, is quoted by opposition media in Russia, which is puzzling people in Finland.

According to unofficial information, accusations are quoted by a few persons supporting the abbot Juha Molari of the Lutheran Church in the Finnish city of Raseborg, who recently treated all the Chechen refugees as terrorists. One of the supporters of Molari is doctor of political sciences Johan Beckman, an Associate Professor at the University of Helsinki. Messrs Molari and Beckman are known in Finland for their pro-Russian position and sharp disagreement with the activities of Mr Storsjo, who is rendering technical support to the "Kavkaz-Centre" - the news agency, which covers problems in Northern Caucasus and the "jihad" on behalf of Muslim militants, members of banned organizations and groupings prohibited by legislation of the Russian Federation.

According to Beckman, who was quoted by a number of Russian editions, the militants' leader in Northern Caucasus Dokku Umarov even threatened to kill Molari and destroy the Anti-Fascist Committee for their criticism of the website that supports the armed underground in the Caucasus. Russian media treated Storsjo as the owner and editor-in-chief of the "Kavkaz-Centre".

"Russian journalists say that they found no sources in Finland other than Beckman. This is complete nonsense. The reason is quite different," Kerkko Paananen told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

According to his story, Mikael Storsjo is not a Swede, but a Swedish-speaking Finn who was born and lived all his life in Finland. "Michael is not the editor-in-chief of the 'Kavkaz-Centre', but the chairman of the board of the society 'Pro Caucasus' registered in Sweden, which is the publisher of the Internet resource 'Kavkaz-Centre'. Besides, Michael provides services of Internet hosting to the website 'Kavkaz-Centre'. I don't even know who is the editor-in-chief of the 'Kavkaz-Centre'; earlier, he was a Chechen living in Sweden," said Kerkko Paananen.

According to his story, accusations against Storsjo mentioned 24 Chechens, 9 of them were children. They had no Finnish visas, as Finland does not issue visas to residents of North-Caucasian republics according to its legislation.

"That's why the natives from Northern Caucasus in need of international protection (i.e., asylum), have to use other methods enabling them to come and seek protection from Finnish authorities. Passports in some of them were fake because they had no chance to receive Russian passports, or they feared for their lives," said Paananen.

He added in his conversation with the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that according to the international convention on the rights of refugees, the use of false documents by people who ask for asylum is not a violation entailing any punishment.

He stresses that this is a key point. "Mikael can't be guilty of organizing illegal immigration, because the Finnish authorities decided to grant the refugee status to all (except for one who is still waiting for the decision), whom Mikael had helped. The Finnish authorities have already proved that they are not illegal immigrants but refugees. Moreover, even the one waiting for the decision is not an illegal immigrant: he is an applicant for the refugee status. In short, the prosecution is trying to turn the logic of the law upside down," says Kerkko Paananen.

"Yes, the prosecution tries to prove that Mikael had received material benefit from helping the Chechens in getting to Finland. In fact, vice versa: Mikael paid for their air tickets, that is, suffered a substantial financial loss from his activities. Since Mikael received no money for his services, the prosecution failed to prove that it was the case. Nevertheless, the prosecution tried to explain that Mikael, 'by giving interviews to mass media,' wanted to gain fame and public attention, which may be interpreted as 'material benefit'," said Kerkko Paananen.

He also noted that the first body to announce in media the case against Mikael Storsjo was the frontier service of Finland, which issued a press release saying that some Finnish citizen was suspected of organizing illegal immigration.

"Since the press release was issued even before the indictment, during the investigation, and since it contained serious errors, Mikael felt it necessary to refute the false allegations of the frontier service," said Kerkko Paananen.

He also clarified the situation with the information, published by some Russian media saying that last spring Storsjo was accused of allegedly threatening ordinary citizens who did not share his opinion on terror acts in Moscow metro.

"Here are these 'ordinary citizens' - of course, Johan Beckman and Pastor Juha Molari," said Paananen.

"Russian media wrote that Storsjo had allegedly supported the women suicide bombers and began threatening the Internet users who had not agreed with him. In fact - he had not supported and had not threatened," Kerkko Paananen expressed his point of view.

"The prosecution has no chance; and it was clear from the results of the first, preparatory judicial session. It's even possible that the court will suspend the trial because of lack of crime attributes. The next session is scheduled for April 15," he said.

He believes that, in fact, the trial is a precedent in nature, as the prosecution is backed up by the frontier service of Finland, which in this way is trying to lobby changes in the immigration law. "They just want to abolish the provision of the law, which allows helping people to enter Finland for humanitarian purposes. In other words, border guards want to equate humanitarian activities with human trafficking. This is the essence of this case," Kerkko Paananen is convinced.