Initially, the case was investigated as attempted murder.
According to the press release published by the Prosecutor’s Office, the indictable acts have mostly been denied. Illustration image. PASI LEISMA
The prosecutor has filed charges against two minors in the crime scene that took place at the Liminganlahti school in Liminga in January.
One person is accused of assault and five counts of unlawful threats, and another is charged with one count of unlawful threats.
District Attorney Juho Alavahtola confirms to Iltalehti that the title of the act has been reduced during the prosecution. Initially, the case was investigated as attempted murder, but it was transferred to prosecution as aggravated assault.
Now the prosecutor has considered that the case is indeed a basic assault. Three different degrees of severity are defined in the law as abuse. According to the law, assault is aggravated if it causes severe or life-threatening injuries and the act is done in a particularly brutal or cruel manner.
Also, the use of a bladed weapon usually makes the crime title gross.
Practice changed
Matti Tolvanen, professor emeritus of criminal and procedural law at the University of Eastern Finland, tells Iltalehti that the interpretation has changed over the years. Therefore, it is not possible to directly conclude from the change of the crime title whether a bladed weapon was used in the act or not.
– In the past, they were generally all serious assaults when a bladed weapon was used, but nowadays more consideration is used, says Tolvanen.
Today, the evaluation of the case takes into account the overall assessment: How serious the act is. A knife can therefore also be used in basic forms of abuse.
– If the injuries caused by a knife are that much less serious, then they have been evaluated as basic forms of assault based on the overall assessment.
According to the press release published by the Prosecutor’s Office, all indictable acts related to the Liminganlahten incident have mostly been denied. The matter is to be heard in the Oulu district court at the Oulu seat on October 16.
Knife on display
Two decisions not to prosecute have also been made in the case regarding two investigated illegal threats. Both of the suspected crimes that led to the not-indictment decisions took place on January 10, 2024. They show that one student had a knife with him at school, but it is unclear if it was used to make threats.
At the time of the crime, a 15-year-old boy was suspected of verbally threatening another boy by pulling his ass outside the school building, when the other boy was moving to the library. The alleged threat took place face-to-face.
In addition, the boy is suspected of threatening the boy with a knife inside the school during recess.
The prosecutor did not file the charge due to lack of right to prosecute. The victim of the suspected crime and his guardian stated that they do not demand punishment for the 15-year-old boy. An illegal threat is a so-called interested party crime, which means that the prosecutor cannot file charges without the consent of the interested party, i.e. the victim, unless, for example, the public interest requires it.
The prosecutor could have brought charges even if a deadly object, such as a knife, had been used in the act. During the preliminary investigation, the victim said that the knife had been displayed, but he was not threatened with it.
In the second decision not to charge, a boy over 15 years old at the time of the crime had threatened that his backuppinsa that is, his friends will beat the other boy if he comes to Toppila in Oulu.
The prosecutor decided not to press charges because, according to him, the suspected crime committed as a young person was due to lack of understanding or thoughtlessness rather than disregard for the prohibitions and orders of the law. The victim had taken the threat seriously. According to the witness, the situation had been preceded by a quarrel.
Titles toned down
The police said in January that a middle school-aged boy tried to hit another student with a bladed weapon at Liminganlahti school on Wednesday, January 10. One student received minor injuries in the incident.
The police have previously said that there are six interested parties, or victims, in the case. All the parties involved are between 15 and 17 years old, which means that the suspects are criminally responsible for their actions due to their age.
Initially, the young man who used a bladed weapon was suspected of attempted murder, but the police already announced on January 16 that they were investigating the case as aggravated assault. Principal of Liminganlahti school Antti Junttola recently told Iltalehti that it was a fight between two middle school students, which escalated when a bladed weapon came up.
The matter was transferred to prosecution as aggravated and mild assault, in addition to which there were eight illegal threats.
Corrected 18.9. at 3:48 p.m. Added the word “necessarily” to the title of the article. Added comments by criminal and procedural law professor Matti Tolvanen.
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