Some of them have gone on humanitarian missions,” Finnish Security Intelligence Service head Antti Pelttari told YLE, Finland’s national broadcasting company. “But unfortunately, increasing numbers are going to join the radical combatants.”
The intelligence chief said that some of those who have left for Syria may have converted to Islam expressly to join the conflict, adding that they had never even attended a mosque. “This radicalization has occurred via the internet,” YLE reports him saying.
Earlier this month the Finnish Interior Ministry expressed concern about the spread of extremism on the internet, and announced cooperation with other EU member states to tackle the issue and agree legislation. Interior Minister Päivi Räsänen called the trend “worrying, because the authorities have limited capacity to intervene.”
The Finnish government also declared that those returning to Finland suspected of having fought in conflict zones would be the subject of a criminal investigation on their return, and that its parliament is currently considering a proposal to criminalize receiving terrorist training. In Saturday’s TV interview security head Pelttari told the channel that around 20 people have returned to Finland from the Middle Eastern country.
Early last month the Wall Street Journal reported that police in Helsinki had announced the arrest of three Finnish nationals on suspicion of “murder for terrorist purposes,” according to a news release from the Helsinki District Court. “We suspect that these persons have participated in activities of armed groups abroad,” said Finnish investigators.
