A man held by the National Bureau of Investigation on suspicion of plotting to commit violent crime had previously served a jail sentence for planning a similar crime, according to commercial broadcaster MTV.
On Sunday MTV reported that the man had previously been sentenced to prison for plotting an attack against the University of Helsinki in which he planned to use a crossbow and poison gas to kill dozens of people.
On Saturday, the NBI said that it had remanded a 30-year-old man into custody on suspicion of plotting to commit aggravated offences to cause bodily harm or death. The man had allegedly conducted an online search for an accomplice to commit the criminal acts, police said.
According to MTV, back in 2014 the Helsinki District Court had sentenced the man to three and half years in prison for planning the violent university attack and for possession of indecent images of children. An appeal court later upheld the lower court’s ruling.
The man had planned the attack with a woman, who had her sentence overturned as the appeal court found her not criminally responsible for her actions.
NBI tight-lipped on details
The appeal court found that the duo had every intention of carrying out the plan and also had the equipment required to do so. They were found to be in possession of items such as a crossbow, handcuffs, bullets, gear vests, gas masks and different chemicals that could be used to make poison gas.
The couple initially planned to steal guns for the attack and to use them to launch an assault on the university campus along with the poison gas. They also planned to inflict as much damage as possible by locking doors and aimed to deter rescue efforts by starting a fire.
NBI lead investigator Detective Inspector Olli Töyräs did not deny or confirm the reports by MTV.
He had previously said that the man was suspected of plotting to commit the offences targeting several people alone. The NBI did not say who the targets were or where the man planned to attack.
"I will not lay out details about the targets at this stage of the investigation and it may not even be possible to identify them. The suspect was not plotting to commit violence against any specific individual, but against several people," Töyräs said on Saturday.