Finland 2025

19/01/2025: Finnish media Ilta-Sanomat asked Supo what threat does IS currently pose to Finland security, especially in the aftermath of Bashar al-Assad's downfall on December 8, 2024 and the rise of Hayat Tahrir al-Shams (HTS) in Syria. According to Supo's reply, even though IS Caliphate collapsed in 2019, the group is still active in Syrian borderlands and the political mayhem resulting from the power vacuum may grant new opportunities to spread terror and violence, unless HTS proves able to fill the void and establish a relevant political order. The main source of concern shared by Supo was the potential impact on the Northern regions controlled by Kurdish authorities were IS fighters and sympathizers are still detained including ten Finns, most of whom are children. Over 80 Finns departed to Syria throughout the 2010's and some brought along 30 children or even conceived new ones in the Caliphate. Most were repatriated but neither the fighters, nor the mere sympathizers, were prosecuted for the crimes committed in Syria and their involvement in a terrorist organization upon their return to Finland. (Source

24/01/2025: Consul Jussi Tanner who serves as special envoy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in charge of repatriating the Finnish children of foreign fighters and sympathizers affiliated to IS who are still detained in Northern Syria, expressed concerns over the security situation that may result from the new Government formed by HTS that does not tolerate the role of Kurdish authorities in the Northern provinces especially in the al-Hol and al-Roj camps where thousands of people, mostly children and their mothers, are detained. Around 40,000 people are located in the al-Hol camp including ten Finns who are being held in a separate, closed zone with other third-country Nationals according to Tanner. However, their relocation to unspecified areas of Syria is already under process and it has not been confirmed if this will be implemented in cooperation with the new authorities of Damascus, hence the security risk that is being stressed by Tanner. The last repatriation to Finland took place in May 2024 with American and Koweiti contributions, and the remainder of the Finnish detainees rejected any assistance from Finnish auhorities. (Source)

28/01/2025: The District Court declared dead a Finnish man from Pirkanmaa who was reported missing in the spring of 2018 when he was under 30-year-old. He converted at the age of 15 to Islam and disappeared from his family for the first time in 2014. At first, he announced that he was going on a vacation to the cottage, but had disappeared without his family knowing for ten days. In September 2014, he had booked a trip to Istanbul, via Paris, and joined the ranks of IS but he still kept in touch with his family from November 2014 to January 2017 on a streaming website. When a close relative contacted the police again in the spring of 2018, nothing had been heard from the man for over a year. His family felt that he could possible have died since the end of 2017 and no information has been received about the missing man since then. The five-year waiting period to be observed when declaring someone dead had already expired so the District Court ultimately declared the man dead. (Source)

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