Helsingin Sanomat writes that Finland's largest criminal trial in terms of number of victims is set to begin on Monday, as Aleksanteri Kivimäki faces charges related to an alleged hacking of the Vastaamo database and subsequent attempts to extort both the customers and its clients.
Kivimäki is suspected of stealing the sensitive personal data of more than 33,000 people, as he attempted to blackmail them and then posting their files on the dark web. Around two-thirds of the victims filed criminal reports with police.
HS talks to Turku-based lawyers Jenni Raiskio and Paula Pajula, whose firm is representing about 1,500 of the victims.
“They are really bitter that this man has ruined their whole lives. The incident has become like a lifelong sentence for them," Raiskio says, adding that many want to look Kivimäki in the eyes and make him understand the pain he has caused.
"Many want their voices to be heard, even if they never receive a single euro in compensation. They want to say that it is not right to do this," she notes.
Others however say they are uncomfortable with the amount of media attention the case is receiving, especially how the suspect has acted since being extradited to Finland from France.
"His behaviour seems to offend the victims. I was just talking to someone who is on medication for depression and has severe anxiety. Every time he hears the suspect's name, the anxious feeling gets stronger," Pajula tells HS.
The future of tax
Tampere-based Aamulehti reports that Finland's tradition of tax returns — or the repaying of back taxes — could soon be a thing of the past.
Markku Heikura, director general of the Finnish Tax Administration, tells AL that the authority receives about 700,000 calls every year related to changes to people's tax cards, which the paper writes has become an "administrative burden".
Taxpayers in Finland are responsible for checking that their own tax card is in order throughout a given year, lest they receive a nasty surprise when the tax year is over.
But not everyone is on top of their tax rate changes, and the tax office said earlier this year that nearly one million people are paying too little tax due to incorrect information on their tax cards.
To combat this, the office is proposing a system whereby tax cards would be automatically checked throughout the year and taxpayers would receive a notification if the rate they are paying is too low.
Heikura tells AL that the tax administration already has the technology to carry out these changes, and would be ready to roll it out by 2027, or even earlier if the political will existed.
"Let's see how this fits into the current government's work queue," he says.
Finland in "cold world of its own"
Finland saw a colder-than-usual month of October this year, and new data obtained from the EU's Copernicus service has revealed that the Nordic countries were in a "cold world" of their own last month.
Iltalehti writes that globally, last month was the warmest October ever recorded, with average temperatures as much as 0.4 degrees higher than in October 2019, the previous record high.
Not so in the Nordics however, as a photograph posted by Scottish meteorologist Scott Duncan on X, formerly Twitter, revealed.
Finland, IL notes, is one of the only countries in the world where the average temperature was colder than normal last month.
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