Finland Times

 

File picture of the NBI criminal list where name of Russian president was included mistakenly. Photo –Lehtikuva.

Finnish prosecutors were expected to file charges against three police staff for involving in the case in which Russian President Vladimir Putin's name was erroneously put on a criminal suspect list, said the Finnish Office of the Prosecutor General in a press release issued on Tuesday.

     

Two of the suspects are high-ranking police officers, and the third is a civil servant responsible for maintaining the database. They all will be prosecuted for dereliction of duty.

     

However, all the three suspects denied having committed a crime, said the Prosecutor General's office.

     

The Finnish police have investigated seven suspects and referred the case to the Office of the Prosecutor General in the beginning of October. After that, prosecutors decided to waive charges against the other four persons.

     

According to prosecutors, entering Putin's name into the register of criminal suspects can be considered illegal.

     

In April 2013, the Finnish commercial TV channel MTV3 disclosed that the name of Russian President was on a criminal suspect registry of Finland's National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).

     

The leak caused huge embarrassment for the Finnish government and the NBI. Both made apologies to Putin subsequently over the issue in April last year.

     

The pre-trial investigation into the case was launched by the Finnish police in April last year soon after the incident was revealed by media.

     

In addition, the investigation on the leak of information about Putin's name on the blacklist to media is also underway.