Kymenlaakso District Court has handed a Russian man a suspended prison sentence of 40 days for twice attempting to violate a ban on entering the country.
The court also ordered Voislav Torden — believed to be the leader of a neo-Nazi group suspected of committing war crimes in Ukraine — to pay a fine of 80 euros to the Finnish state.
The border crimes are believed to have taken place at the Vaalimaa checkpoint between 2022 and 2023.
Torden is on an EU sanctions list under an alias, Jan Petrovski, and he was banned from entering Finland under that name.
The prosecutor told the court that Torden applied for visas to Greece and France using only his current name, although the application had specifically asked him to provide any previous names.
Torden also stated on the applications that he had not been previously subject to any entry ban.
He however denied to the court that he had deliberately violated the entry ban or misled Finnish authorities, saying he was under the impression that the entry bans had expired.
Torden was detained in July 2023 on suspicion of participating in the activities of a terrorist group as well as supporting the activities of a terrorist group.
Helsinki District Court ordered in December that Torden be remanded in custody on suspicion of committing an aggravated war crime and other offences in Ukraine. According to the arrest warrant, the suspected crimes were committed in 2014–15 when he was a mercenary with a neo-Nazi group.