Anti-immigrant agitator Ilja Janitskin was extradited from house arrest in Andorra back to Finland by police sometime between Friday evening and Saturday morning, the Finnish Police report. Officials say he is now being held by police in Helsinki.
Preliminary investigations into his case are reaching their conclusion and the Helsinki District Court is expected to decide upon his continued incarceration next week.
He has been accused of a total of 46 offenses in Finland, the most grievous of which include aggravated incitement against an ethnic group, aggravated slander, money laundering, gambling offenses, illegal threats, breach of confidentiality and intellectual property theft.
European arrest warrant
Finland's courts decided last autumn to issue a pan-European arrest warrant in absentia for Janitskin, who founded the nationalist website MV-lehti from his home in Spain in 2014. After the warrant was issued in October, Janitskin let it be known that he would not willingly give himself up for questioning.
Finnish Police say that there are several other suspects believed to have been involved in the crimes associated with the case against Jantiskin. These other suspects had earlier worked anonymously for the MV-lehti publication.
The police say they will begin interrogating Jantiskin as soon as possible, and that they have concluded their discussions with the other suspects.
Janitskin was arrested in Andorra by Interpol in August of 2017, and was living under house arrest there while the Andorran courts were deciding whether to comply with Finland's extradition request.
The Ministry of Justice in Finland reported on 21 March 2018 that Ilja Janitskin would be sent back to Finland, pursuant to a ruling by the microstate's authorities in favour of the extradition.