Finland violated right to life in 2008 school murders: ECHR

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on Thursday held Finland responsible for violating the right to life for its failure to take precautionary measures to protect the victims of the 2008 school murders.

The court also ruled Finland to pay 31,571.97 euros to the plaintiff Elmeri Kotilainen in respect of pecuniary damage and EUR 30,000 to every household unit listed in the judgment jointly in respect of non-pecuniary damage, said an ECHR press release.

The court also ordered Finland to pay EUR 2,086.34 to the first household unit and EUR 6,818.56 to each of the other household units (second to tenth), in respect of costs and expenses.

Ten students and a teacher of a high school in Kauhajoki were killed when a 22-year-old man opened fire on them on 23 September 2008. The attacker later killed himself, too.

In the verdict, the court observed that the authorities could not have known of a real and immediate risk to the lives of the plaintiffs’ relatives. However, having known of posts on the Internet by the perpetrator of the shooting, the police had interviewed him the day before the attack but had not deemed it necessary to confiscate his weapon. Hence, the authorities had not fulfilled their duty of diligence flowing from the particularly high level of risk inherent in any misconduct involving the use of firearms.

The plaintiffs are 19 Finnish nationals who are relatives of nine students and a teacher killed in the school shooting.

The Court noted that the plaintiffs’ main grievance was that the person who had carried out the shooting had been allowed to possess a firearm, which the police had not seized before the attack.

Highlighting the inherent risks to the right to life from the use of firearms and the state’s obligation to adopt and implement measures to ensure public safety, the court found that it could not discern any deficiencies in the relevant framework in Finland at the time.

The court thus found that seizing the weapon was a reasonable measure of precaution given the doubts about the perpetrator’s fitness to possess a dangerous firearm. The authorities had thus not observed the special duty of diligence incumbent on them owing to the particularly high level of risk to life inherent in any misconduct involving firearms.

The court, by six votes to one, found that there had been a violation by the state of its obligations to safeguard lives.

The shooter, Matti Saari, a student at the college, posted several videos on YouTube during the weeks before the shooting showing himself firing a pistol.

The Vaasa Court of Appeal issued the officer in charge with a warning of negligent misconduct for not temporarily confiscating the weapon at the time.