Finnish court finds 2 journalists guilty of revealing defense secrets

By Beyza Binnur Donmez

ISTANBUL (AA) - Two journalists from the Finnish daily newspaper Helsingin Sanomat were found guilty Friday by the Helsinki District Court for disclosing state secrets in a 2017 article.

The court ruled that Laura Halminen and Tuomo Pietilainen disclosed several pieces of information concerning military intelligence that had been classified as secret in the interests of Finland's external security, public broadcaster Yle reported.

The article covered the activities of a central Finland-based intelligence facility that acquired information for the Finnish Defense Forces through intercepting signals.

Yle said Pietilainen was the main author of the article and the court ordered him to pay 50 income-linked day fines.

But Halminen did not receive a fine as the court determined she played a lesser role in the creation of the article.

The court also acquitted Kalle Silfverberg, who was heading the politics desk at Helsingin Sanomat at the time the article was published.

The prosecution had requested that each of the three defendants receive suspended prison terms of at least one and a half years, claiming they were aware the article contained sensitive material about Finland's foreign security.

No state secrets were divulged in the story, according to the defense teams of the journalists and they denied any wrongdoing.