About
Anneli Auer
Anneli Auer, a victim of injustice and persecution in Finland, – a country that prides itself to be the least corrupt in the world. Instead of receiving a fair trial, she received a trial by the media. Finally, on 18.12.2015 she was declared innocent for the murder of her husband by Finland’s Supreme Court. Her fight for justice continues, as her wrongful conviction for CSA remains to be overturned.
In this blog, articles will be published in English and Finnish. See the relevant language category on the right hand side.
NEW! Watch Emergency Call – A Murder Mystery documentary film about Anneli’s case (with English subtitles).
Anneli Auer
ANNELI AUER – BACKGROUND
Anneli Auer is a widower mother of four beautiful children. Her husband Jukka Lahti was brutally murdered at their family home in December 2006. The high profile case is known in Finland as the Ulvila murder case.
Someone came through a glass door in the middle of the night, and killed her husband while she was making an emergency phone call. Her eldest daughter, then nine year’s old, saw the killer leave their home. The mother had been stabbed by the intruder through her breast, so that her lung collapsed.
This horrible incident changed the lives of this young family forever. Almost two years after the murder, the local Satakunta police in Pori, changed their investigating officer, because they still had not been able to find the murderer after taking over 700 male DNA samples, and wrongfully arresting a local man for a week. In June 2013, nearly seven years after the murder, it was revealed that the police had contaminated the DNA sample that had been found in the murder scene. It may well be that the murderer escaped justice, because of the blunder.
Pauli Kuusiranta
The victim, Jukka Lahti
Door
Crime scene
The newly appointed investigating officer in 2008, Pauli Kuusiranta, had only one line of investigation; the widower mother must have been the perpetrator. The police decided to introduce an undercover officer to the widower’s life as a new prospective boyfriend. He found nothing incriminating, and reported back that Anneli Auer was a devoted good mother to her children.
FIRST A GUILTY VERDICT, THEN ACQUITTAL
The District Court of Satakunta found Anneli Auer guilty of the murder in June 2010, but the verdict was not unanimous. One of the judges felt that there was not enough evidence to convict the defendant. In May 2011 the Vaasa Appeals Court suddenly acquitted and released her. However, the prosecutors Jarmo Valkama and Kalle Kulmala were not happy. It appears that some other people were not happy either, mainly Anneli’s brother and his wife. At this point they were receiving €9.000/month to look after Anneli’s three youngest children. The oldest daughter had moved to a children’s home, as she could not bare living with her uncle.
Only two months after Anneli’s release, the prosecutors received miraculously “new evidence” from Anneli’s brother, who has had the custody of her youngest three children with his wife since Anneli was first sent to prison. It turned out that the youngest children, now 7, 9 and 12 years old, were telling horror stories about their mother and their older sister to their uncle, and his wife.
Suddenly, and so very conveniently for the prosecutors, the children had lots of horrible memories of events at home, that had allegedly taken place over five years ago when they were only 2, 4 and 7 years old, or even younger. These youngest three children stayed in their bedroom behind closed doors, when the horrific murder took place at their home five years earlier. Now they seemed to know, and remember, in detail what was going on that unfortunate night.
These traumatised children had already lost their farther, – and then their mother two year’s later , when she was wrongly arrested, and sentenced for the murder. Their older sister had moved to a children’s home by herself, as she got constantly blamed for everything at their new foster home. Also Anneli was blamed to the youngest three, who by now must have been very afraid of their mother, the infamous “hostess of the house of horrors” (the way Anneli was portrayed in the media). It must have been a big shock for the children to hear that their mother was suddenly out of jail in 2011, and that they would have to move back home with her. In their eyes mummy had killed their farther, and had been put into prison for life by the police, – “who is never wrong in Finland”. (Finns’ trust in the police is the highest in Europe).
No one would believe the children’s horror stories of Satanic rituals and animal torture, that apparently took place every Sunday in their home (well, the prosecutor Valkama obviously did!). Much more serious material was required from the children by the prosecution. This was produced by using dubious interviewing methods with leading questions companied with encouraging and affirming comments. After some couching the children started telling that they had also been raped by their mother, and her ex-boyfriend. Both were arrested in September 2011, and wrongly convicted for long sentences in June 2012 for child sex abuse.
The Ulvila murder case has become a matter of reputation and prestige for the Pori police and the prosecutors. The newly appointed investigating officer Pauli Kuusiranta had boasted in the press that no homicide cases had been unsolved since the war time in Pori. He also boasted that the case was solved long before it had even been heard in the District Court.
Mikko Paatero has close ties to Satakunta police in Pori. Member of NCP.
Finland’s National Police Commissioner (2008 – 2015), Mikko Paatero, also from Satakunta area in Finland, had personally intervened in the Ulvila murder investigation in 2008, preventing it from being transferred to Finland’s National Bureau of Investigation (KRP). Winning the high profile case, by what ever means, was their only concern. Justice and solving the murder was irrelevant.
In Finland corruption exists in the form of networks of powerful people who are, for example, members of the Free Masons, religious sects, or a political party. It is hidden, structural corruption, that goes undetected, because there is no system in place, and people’s high level of trust is easy to exploit.
In the Ulvila murder case, all the main players responsible for sending an innocent mother of four children to prison, and for her then to lose her youngest children, have been members, or supporters of The National Coalition Party ( = Kokoomus in Finnish). Anneli Auer’s fight for justice had become political.
Prosecutors Jarmo Valkama & Kalle Kulmala have read thousands of pages of horror stories and child sex material
GROSS MISCARRIAGE OF JUSTICE – THE CHILD SEX ABUSE CASE
The Appeals Court hearings for the false child sex abuse allegations started on 28 January 2013 behind closed doors, and ended on 17 April 2013. The verdict was given given on 27 June 2013. It was a devastating miscarriage of justice. Both lawyers for the defendants had said that they had been able to prove the innocence of the accused, but the judges ignored this and increased Anneli Auer’s sentence by six months. (She got 7,5 years, and the Helsinki taxi driver 10 years). Both appealed to the Supreme Court. The Appeals Court ruling was based on the prosecutor’s (secret) expert witness’ statements, and the concept of “general life experience”.
The expert witness’ statements of Finland’s most reputable academics of the field were completely ignored, as they were accused of “working for the defence”. The prosecutor’s own star expert witness was a deeply religious gynaecologist Minna Joki-Erkkilä, who actually does work for the police. She had experienced a strong religious calling after her own daughter was brutally murdered six months before Anneli’s children’s stories were presented to her by the police. A missing teenage girl, Karoliina Kesti, was found drowned in a lake behind her home during that same period, so one must question her mental state, and the ability in that period to carry out her work.
Minna Joki-Erkkilä
Minna Joki-Erkkilä examined Anneli’s children with UV light observing that all the daughters were virgins. This did not mean anything to her, because apparently hymens grow back, and the possibility that crime has taken place could never be ruled out, even if there was no evidence. Minna Joki-Erkkilä examined the children’s entire bodies with a brand new UV lamp developed in Finland (but not tested, nor registered for medical use). It is unclear whether her method is scientifically valid, or whether a gynaecologist can be an expert witness in dermatology, finding numerous “healed scratch marks”, invisible for the naked eye. In fact, the findings were not visible in the photographs either, so the police had to draw them using Photoshop, or similar. According to her these “findings” were scars, and therefore evidence of abuse, and Satanic rituals. Dr. Joki-Erkkilä was even able to name the perpetrators in her statement to the police. How these photographs were accepted as evidence by the judges, we can only guess.
2013, A NEW ROUND OF MURDER TRIALS FOR ANNELI
Annette Santamaa. Member of NCP.
During 2013 Anneli Auer had to endure another round of the Ulvila murder trial, too. This was the third time she’s was tried for the murder. Her fate was again in the hands of three local District Court judges, who were to decide whether she murdered her husband, or not. One of the judges, Annette Santamaa, was from Ulvila, and she knew personally prosecutor Jarmo Valkama who lived in the same neighbourhood. She also knows the former interior minister Anne Holmlund (also from Ulvila) from National Coalition Party political circles, who had also interfered in the case when a local man had been arrested for the murder. Needless to say, Annette Santamaa found Anneli guilty of murder.
Anne Holmlund (NCP) and Mikko Paatero (NCP)
Jarmo Valkama, Free Mason
Pori police chief Timo Vuola and Mikko Paatero were close.
The main investigator, Tapio Santaoja forged evidence
Jaakko Jonkka, the Chancellor of Justice of Finland 2007-2017, was also a good friend of Pauli Kuusiranta. No justice for Anneli.
The prosecutor Valkama had managed to persuade the Supreme Court in May 2012 that “new evidence” provided by Anneli’s brother regarding her three youngest children had to be presented in court. To the prosecutor, the children’s horror stories provided a motive for the murder. The horror stories included Satanic rituals, torturing and killing of animals, brutal violence against the children, their mother plotting the murder, rehearsing and executing it with the participation of their older sister, then 9 years old. The stories grew wilder and wilder each time the children were interviewed, culminating in horrific stories of rape and abuse. The Supreme Court decided to bounce the murder case back to square one, i.e. to the same local Satakunta District Court, so that the “new evidence” could be looked at.
The Satakunta District Court‘s new murder verdict was announced on 12 December 2013. Anneli Auer received again a life sentence by the judges voting 2-1. Again, one of the judges felt that it was not proved that there was no outsider assailant present when Anneli Auer made the emergency call.
Anneli’s youngest three children had told their uncle that their mother had pre-recorded the murder on a C-casette with their older sister, and played the tape back while on the phone, giving them more time to stage the murder scene, and getting rid of evidence before the ambulance and police arrived. In the previous murder trials the prosecutor had tried to prove that Anneli had murdered her husband during the emergency call, leaving his oldest daughter on the phone. The FBI examined the emergency call recording, but found no evidence of pre-recording.
The District Court’s new guilty verdict caused a heated public debate about the legal process that had lasted already five years, and cost millions of euros. The prosecutor changed his theory of the motive, and his theory of the chain of events, while the new murder trial was taking place. The Satanic ritual killing was watered down to mere domestic violence and shop lifting with the children, – of which there was no evidence either. In the end the District Court judges ignored the prosecutor’s “new evidence” provided by the child witnesses, and focussed on reassessing the old. This presents a problem, as there already is a prior verdict (acquitting Anneli) from the Appeals Court, based on the same old evidence.
To summarise, the “new evidence” extracted from Anneli Auer’s traumatised children was too unbelievable for the District Court judges to take seriously. The “new evidence” was ignored, and in this way the District Court’s new guilty verdict bypassed the authority of the Appeals Court prior murder judgement acquitting Anneli Auer. An other major contradiction is the fact that two courts in the alleged sex abuse case have already based their guilty verdicts on the same childrens’, same horror stories. It was done in secret trials behind closed doors.
The police and the the prosecutors kept repeating in the press for six months that the “new evidence” from Anneli’s children had nothing to do with the murder case. This turned out to be a complete lie, but it ensured two separate trials against Anneli, and a complete character assasination of the accused in the press.
Raine Ampuja
Anneli Auer denies the charges made against her. Her battle for justice continues. She was acquitted a second time by the Appeals Court in February 2015 for the murder charges. The bloodthirsty prosecutors were not happy with the outcome, they appealed second time with “new evidence” to the Supreme Court. This time the “new evidence” was provided by an eager arm chair detective, a retired army wind pipe orchestra conductor called Raine Ampuja. He claimed that he can analyse the emergency call recording better than the FBI had done in the United States. The Supreme Court did not accept his analysis, and kept the Appeals Court judgement in place. Anneli Auer was finally fully acquitted of the murder charges on 18.12.2015.
It became clear that the prosecutors did not respect the verdicts that six Appeals Court judges had given in the case (five out of six ruled in favour for Anneli). The prosecutors did not stop persecuting Anneli Auer, they wanted to get her behind the bars for life, even though she had been found innocent. Anneli Auer lost her husband, three of her children, her reputation, her freedom, her savings, her business, her home and belongings during this process, whereas the prosecutors had unlimited resources and taxpayer’s millions to spend in their mission to win the case. After hearing the Supreme Court’s verdict, the disappointed Prosecutor General Matti Nissinen gave his condolences to the relatives of the victim, and defiantly declared that the law system should be changed in Finland.
Paatero’s good mate Matti Nissinen had hoped to become the next Police Commissioner after Paatero’s retirement.
In December 2017 the Prosecutor General Matti Nissinen got sacked from his job for nepotism. In a historic ruling, Finland’s Supreme Court sentenced the Prosecutor General Matti Nissinen to fines amounting to 1,720 euros for official misconduct. His role in persecuting an innocent mother of four children still needs to be investigated.
***
During the new murder trial in Pori in 2013, it was revealed that Anneli’s unemployed brother was receiving about € 9000 /month to look after her youngest children. He had purchased a €150 000 luxury cruiser, and a €50 000 car just before Anneli was acquitted by the Appeals Court back in 2011. He took the children to the sea to avoid letting Anneli to see them. During their long sea trip, he and his wife video recorded the children telling horror stories how their mother had murdered their dad together with their sister. The children used notes whilst telling their stories.
Anneli’s brother and his wife have estranged the fearful youngest children from their older sister, their mother, their grandmother and grandfather, and every relative. The children have no contact with anyone from their past.
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Everything will be revealed in the blog posts. I am a sole person updating the blogs in two languages, so please bear with me.
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Anneli Auer on neljän lapsen yksinhuoltaja leskiäiti, joka istui Suomessa syyttömänä toistamiseen vankilassa. Anneli Auer on koulutukseltaan ekonomi ja ammatiltaan yksityisyrittäjä.
Tässä blogissa käsitellään sitä miten syytön ihminen on joutunut viranomaisten vainon uhriksi maassa, joka ylpeilee korruptoitumattomuudellaan.
Tilaa Annelin kirja Murhalesken muistelmat
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Hi Susku,
I also watched the film on Arte, unfortunately not from the right beginning. I’m still shocked and can’t believe the cruelty of all of the involved people – staff of the police, the Court or politicians -, with which they have destroyed and are still destroying a whole family, and beyond, the blind trust of an entire nation in executive authorities as well as judiciary.
In case there will really come the day when all the lies will be revealed and the cards put on the table, I suppose, this must shake the Finish democracy to its very foundations – a quite high risk these people were and are running. So, they will do anything, really anything what you could think of to avoid such a situation. I fear that there will be no justice for Anneli, as long as this case is treated in Finland by finish authorities. So much time has gone, so many people involved and, besides that, people in highest positions with the power of “managing” this case according to their needs.
Thus, there is hope and a real chance getting this incredible case to the European Court of Justice. I’m not familiar with the processing there, but would like to recommend you starting a petition in the network of Avaaz, a great and powerful community of millions of people from all over the world campaigning for strengthening civil rights and fighting injustice. Perhaps you’ve already heard of them. There is also the possibility for everyone to start an own campaign or petition. They also do collect money, and, what’s very important, they are independent. So, perhaps this could be a real opportunity. Their homepage: http://www.avaaz.org.
I wish you, your brother and Anneli the necessary energy in this dirty power game.
Best regards from Germany,
Birgit
P.S.: Please, pardon my moderate English!
I too watched the footage on arte which left me shocked and restless with regard to the displayed events and their results.
It must be unbelieveable tough for a person to endure such circumstances as Annelie Auer must have.
Also the way children had been used to fit the needed part in the puzzle of investigation appeared really calculated to me.
Personally I cannot believe that a mother and an infant daughter are capable of processing a cold blooded murder as executed here. How should all the stages should be rehearsed in a common family environment ?
I will definetely keep an eye on the development and hope that there will be justice and peace for all involved and victims of this odyssey of authorities.
Yes, the children have been used in a highly calculated political game. They have been abused, not by their mother, but by the Finnish authorities. I say authorities in plural, and as a unified group, as I have failed to see anyone come forward to Anneli’s and her children’s help. During the past three year’s I have asked help from many authorities, and only twice have I had a neutral response.
The prosecutor Valkama (in the film), who had the centre stage before retiring to the background last year, used to talk about the case as a game. His language about the case has been very colourful, as can be seen in the film.
People in Finland are waiting anxiously for Anneli’s new verdict from the Appeals Court. It is taking far longer than usual, and it is making people nervous on both sides. I hope that we do not need to wait until the coming elections are over in April.
http://www.arte.tv/guide/fr/046123-000/meurtre-en-finlande
Terrific story and happy to find this blog. I wonder about the children, how they will construct theirself and the help they will find. The documentary finished with the separation between them and their mother but in the same time doesn’t let her see them! How justice can let do that! This is not objective justice but justice made by the society.
Amanda, the eldest daughter will be 18 this year. She has gone to normal school, sees her mother and grandparents. Leaving her uncle’s house was the best thing that happened to her. The staff at the children’s home have been professional and good to her. She would love to see her younger siblings one day, and get the family united. She has testified in the court already twice in person.
The youngest three no one knows about. They are totally isolated from everyone. The boy will be 16 soon. He had the chance to testify at court last year, but refused to do so. (A close relative does not need to testify). The authorities used the video recordings, that the uncle and the police had made of him, as evidence in the court.
Well, I hope that the younger ones come forward one day, and let the world know what happened to them. How they were treated, and why they had to lie in order to feel safe. They might have to do this secretly behind the back of their foster parents and the authorities. They can contact me through the blog, or their mother’s friend lawyer Niina Berg through her blog. That way they can get in touch with their sister, too.
I want the youngest children know that no one is blaming them about what has happened. I am very confident that they will come forward one day, and put an end to the suffering of their mother and sister.
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The programme can be seen again on Sunday 1 Feb 2015 on Arte both in France and Germany.
MEURTRE EN FINLANDE
dimanche 01 février à 3h30 (83 min)
The programme can be seen again on Sunday 1 Feb 2015 on Arte in France.
Notruf
01.02.2015
02:55 Uhr
Dokumentarfilm Deutschland/Finnland/Frankreich 2014 | arte
http://programm.ard.de/?sendung=2872413758114248&first=1
The documentary said that it was suspicious that Anneli never showed any tears. Could she be an individual with high functioning autism? It could explain her lack of tears. Also, am I the only one who finds the way the “Psychologists” interviewed Annelis’ eldest daughter pretty strange and unprofessional?
Anneli has been criticised by the prosecution for not crying in public. Also Madeleine McCann’s mother Kate McCann was accused of the same, and so was an Australian mother, whose child was taken by a dingo from a tent. Both whom have been later cleared of having anything to with the disappearance of their child.
It is some sort of learned cultural expectation how people, especially women, should react under duress. Perhaps it comes from the Hollywood film industry and television soap operas? Anneli Auer has naturally cried many times over losing her husband and children. A nurse came forward last year, who had seen Anneli cry at the hospital, when she was admitted there with a stab wound through her breast that had also punctured her lung. The prosecution claims that she did it to herself as part of her elaborate staging attempt. The police never heard this nurse, even though she was the one looking after Anneli at the hospital at the time. Many of the witnesses against Anneli have been medical staff and low ranking police officers with an attitude of suspicion. Rumours and speculation were circulating in the staff canteens that had influenced their opinions. One even claimed that Anneli had wet hair when she saw her at the house. This wasn’t true, and was proven from photographs later on at court. Also the drains had been inspected, and were found to be dry, so she had not washed herself before the police arrived.
Before the Appeals Court acquitted Anneli in 2011, they ordered her to take a rigorous mental health test. She passed the test with excellent results. She is a very stable and calm person. As part of the test people who know her were asked to assess her.
The psychologist interviewing the children is not very highly trained, and her interviewing methods were heavily criticised by leading experts of the field. The questions were leading and pressurising. The interviews were breaking the guidelines set by the authorities. But by far worse were the interviews that the uncle and his wife had conducted on a yacht in the middle of the sea, when they took the children and went hiding from their mother after she was released from prison in 2011. The foster parents lied in the court that they had been advised to do so. In the videos (filmed by the uncle and his wife) the children were reading answers from memory notes. This proves that the interviews were rehearsed. Also, the stories are completely wild accusations of, for example, how their sister had wanted to poison them, and burn the uncle’s house down. None of this is challenged in any way, but the children are encouraged to tell more and wilder stories by the adults by repeating to them approvingly: “exactly”.
In Finland we do have the expertise, but it has not been accepted and utilised in this high profile case. It makes one to wonder what is it that the authorities have been trying to hide? Some people now believe that the police has something to do with the murder.
Form my kind of rational human understanding – that luckily has nothing todo with the law I dont understand two simple questions:
1. From my understanding Anneli and her husbant never had any history of “physical violence”? – so how can you guess that they or Anneli started to do so on this night?
2. The knive was not(?) part of the kitchen inventory and was sharpened with something now available in the house?
– so this all was a well planed conspiracy with a 9 year old at 2 in the morning – yes sure do you have kids?
Its horrible how many lives are destroyed or need a re-build – I just hope that every one that is guilty will get their price to pay (even if its only nightmares every night – heavy inner conficts that destroy the day – of course I wish them a long life).
These are very valid questions. The knife did not belong to the household. It is the prosecution’s theory that the murder happened when a row in the middle of the night got out of hand. BUT the contradiction is that the prosecution has also claimed that it was a pre-meditated murder, planned and rehearsed with a nine year old child.
The household did not have anything that could be used for sharpening knives.
There was no history of alcohol abuse, financial problems, nor marital problems in the family. The theory of a row is the invention of the prosecutors.
Hello
I watched the documentary yesterday, I just could not believe it, it left me speechless, how is this possible in Nothern countries ? how can justice and police condamn people with no evidence ? it seems obvious that as the police did not find the author of the murder, the mother has to be sacrified.
Do they realize that they have destroyed the lifes of 4 kids and a mother ?
It is as horrible as what is happening in the worst places of the world, if not more, because it should never happen like that in Finland.
It is possible anywhere at any time. Unfortunately the old Roman Law “in dubio pro reo” has shown it’s limits over the last centuries – even millenniums all over the world.
In this particular case of Anneli however I strongly believe that it is not only a matter of “dubio”. The live recordings of the emergency call, the appearance of the police only a few minutes after the call and the absence of all evidence of an insinuated “staged” alibi, would already convince me as a potential member of a jury that Anneli can’t possibly have comitted such an outrageous crime. Agreed, the crime scene itself could have been staged beforehand but certainly the responsible coroner must have been able to testify the time of death of Anneli’s murdered husband pretty precisely. Algor mortis and livor mortis are the key factors here for a death only minutes or – in case of a staged scene – hours ago.
At first the police heard the voice of the assailant from the emergency recording, then they stopped hearing it altogether, nor hearing any sounds of battle in the background while Anneli was on the phone. They changed their transcription of the emergency call accordingly, and distributed the false transcription in the media to make Anneli look guilty in the eyes of the Finnish public.
The other murder weapon was never found, possibly an axe, or a crow bar. Neither were the bloody clothes (if it was the wife, she would have had to protect her hair and clothes getting stained with blood), nor the shoes that had left bloody prints on the floor, and elsewhere.
Anneli’s son told the police in his later changed statement that mummy and sister had used a wooden homemade shield, and brown towels to protect themselves from the blood getting onto their clothes (brown unidentified fibres had been found in the bedroom, and on top of the victim). He also told how mummy and sister had discussed and rehearsed the murder together beforehand, and how they executed it while he was listening behind his bedroom door (in his initial statement he had been in bed holding the pillow over his ears, because he had been too scared to come out of bed). He claimed that the murder was pre-recorded, and played back when the emergency call was made. He heard the sounds of the knife in the air…He heard how his sister hit daddy with a hammer in the head, and how mummy finished him off. This poor child needs desperately some professional help.
The urban legend in Finland now is that Anneli Auer hid everything in the freezer, because she returned to the house two weeks after the murder accompanied with a lady from the social services, to collect some clothes. She had also taken some food from the freezer in a plastic bag to take back to her parents house where they were staying, but the lady from the social services could not tell the court what was inside the plastic bag. The accusations against Anneli have been tragicomical, as naturally the freezer would have been stained with blood, had she tried to hide anything there. And there was lots to hide according to the boys story; recording equipment and bloodied C-tapes, the object that Anneli used in breaking the window etc., etc.
To even consider that the wife had pre-recorded the murder together with her nine year old daughter, and then acted an Oscar deserving performance together with her daughter when calling the emergency services is just beyond me. But this is exactly what the prosecutors and the police have done.
Usually people do not need to prove their innocence, but it hasn’t been the case here. The police and the prosecutors have demanded Anneli to prove that there was an outsider. The hooded assailant was wearing gloves and did not leave his DNA in the crime scene, therefore the argument has been, that he does not exist, and both the mother and daughter are lying.
When Anneli was suddenly released from the prison, the then 12 year old estranged and scared son claimed that mother and sister (only nine at the time) murdered farther together and staged the whole thing. The poor boy is very confused, and under a lot of pressure from the adults surrounding him.
In fact, it has been the police that has lied and distorted evidence against Anneli, but in Finland the prosecutors refuse to investigate the claims, and they protect the crimes of the police. We do not have an independent body to investigate complaints about the police, and the internal controls have been non existent. It is a horrible situation which has led to a massive corruption within the police organisation. At the same time the police has been granted massive new powers to detain people indefinitely without charging, and to use extensive surveillance methods.
In Anneli’s case the police had listening devices in her home, and had planted an undercover officer as her boyfriend. Usually these type of methods are used in drug investigations, not in a family setting. Further more, the methods used did not bring up anything against Anneli, all the contrary. The undercover officer stated that Anneli is a good and devoted mother. This is in a stark contrast with the children’s horror stories about their mother’s and sister’s behaviour. No one has ever reported Anneli to be anything else than a good mother, nor has anyone ever witnessed her maltreating her children.
In Finland people have traditionally trusted the police to be honest and law obeying. It has been very difficult for people to believe that the police has done anything criminal, therefore it has been easy for the police to turn Anneli into a national hate figure in the media. Anyone defending Anneli’s honour has been branded a peadophile in the internet discussion forums (myself included). People have received hate male and one witness’ house was burnt down. The mood has been akin to a witch hunt where child witnesses go unchallenged sending people to be burnt at a stake. Anneli’s case has really and truly been an embarrassment for the Finnish authorities and legal system.
It is only now that the public are slowly starting to question the integrity of the police in Finland thanks to the fact that the former Helsinki drug unit boss is currently accused of massive corruption and drug trafficking. He has been in the receiving end of the same style of treatment that Anneli and my brother have endured. Whether he is innocent or guilty, there should be massive changes to the way people are treated as suspects of a crime.
That what happened to Anneli Auer seems like the Kafka Storie “The process”. Is there any possibility to help this woman? U. Kleffner
Thank you! It would be great if the press in Germany would publish an interview with the director of the film, for example.
I have considered of starting to collect donations for Anneli’s and my brother’s defence costs, if and when the case goes to the European Court of Justice. Apparently it is a very expensive legal process. The translation of thousands of pages is going to be very costly alone.
Does it have to be translated at your expense? As far as I know at the European Court of Justice any of the languages spoken in the EU can be the official language for legal proceedings.
I have been informed by someone who has had his case in the European Court of Justice that the process cost about 100 000 euros altogether. He won and was awarded only 10 000 euros compensation, which I found to be very little for such an investment/risk.
Anneli’s case is very complex with the murder investigation, and the child sex abuse claims. (She is the only person in the entire world to have been accused of killing her husband AND raping her children). There are thousands of pages to translate by a specialist who masters the vocabulary. Every page needs to be printed and copied, too. Also, the defence wants to bring in an internationally acclaimed expert witness, which will be costly as well. So far the Ulvila murder case has cost the Finnish tax payers millions of pounds. No one seems to know the exact figure. It has cost the defendants everything they had, and a lot to their family members, too.
Saw the story today German TV and I’m still shocked about that numbers of unfair trails.
Would be nice to get more actual information as this seems to ne updates the last time a long time ago… I just saw a documentary on german TV and I am beyond terrified what is happening here…
Thank you for your interest Stina! I will try to update the blog page soon. It has been a long time since I have had the chance to do so.
I write two blogs, this one mainly in Finnish, and http://www.helsinkitaxidriver.com (in English only).
My Twitter account is http://www.twitter.com/SuskuLondon where I tweet in Finnish and English about Anneli’s case.
I also have a Facebook page, where I comment on press articles, mostly in Finnish http://www.facebook.com/SuskuLondon
I have just watched a documentary about this case on the German-French television broadcaster “arte” and it leaves me almost speachless. I certainly will try to find some more sources about this in either English / French or German as I unfortunately do not understand Finnish. Anyway, your blog seems a good start to me.
I can’t say much more right now since I still feel overwhelmed by my thoughts and my emotions but I am sure that the more I learn about it the more I may be able to contribute.
One thing though crossed my mind while watching the part concerning Anneli’s brother and his changed (?) attitude towards his sister, her eldest daughter and the family’s history and I wonder if he may has had a role to play in this whole thing and whether that had been investigated properly? It seemed at least strange to me that the children he and his wife had taken care of changed their initial statement to the police and the proscecutors to the disadvantage of Anneli.
Best regards from Germany to you and all who keep this blog alive,
Alexander
Auch ich habe den Fall gestern im Fernsehen gesehen. Es hat mich schockiert! Ich bewundere die Frau und vor allem das älteste Kind! Die kleine beweißt Charakterstärke! Der Bruder hat sehr wahrscheinlich die ganz kleinen beeinflusst und ich vermute eine Art “Gehirnwäsche” mit ihnen vorgenommen. Er hat sie ja auch lang genug in seiner Obhut und kassiert monatlich jede Menge Pflegegeld!
Vielen Danke! Ich verstehe aber spreche nichts…It has been too many decades ago when I learned German in school.
I’ll translate Jo’s comment for you:
“I have watched this case on television too. It left me shocked! I venerate the woman and the especially the eldest child! The girl shows some moral fibre! The brother” …
(i. e. Anneli’s brother)
“… has very likely influenced the little onces and I presume he has performed some kind of brainwash on them. He had them under his custody for long enough and cashes in on a large sum of attendance allowance on a monthly basis!”
Thank you Alexander,
Anneli Auer’s case is a major embarrassment to the Finnish authorities, mainly to the police and the social services, who were supposed to look after the best interests of her traumatised children, but instead allowed them to be manipulated, and completely alienated from their mother. The youngest three are no longer in contact with anyone from their biological family, except their uncle and his wife, who are their foster parents, and receiving a generous sum of money each month to look after them. Even the grandparents are not allowed to see the youngest three, so that the truth would not come out about the origins of their horror stories.
Anneli has been completely demonised in the Finnish press over the years by publishing distorted and one-sided stories about her “evil character”. The prosecutors and the police have constantly attacked Anneli, and people defending her by using the press as their mouth piece. Everyone else has been silenced. There has been also attempts to censor the documentary film. The Finnish Broadcaster YLE announced that they will cut 1/4 of the film before showing it on television sometime this spring.
There is a political dimension to Anneli’s story. The former interior minister and the highest police commissioner intervened in the case two years after the police had not found the murderer. Both represent the right-wing National Coalition Party (Kokoomus) in Finland, and come from the same West Finnish (Satakunta) district where the murder took place. In this blog I write how this interference has affected negatively on Anneli’s chances for a fair trial. Unfortunately I have not yet had a chance to update the latest developments in English as well, as I am a sole person blogging and using social media to help Anneli and my brother, who are both falsely convicted and imprisoned for 7,5 and 10 years respectively.
Anneli is currently waiting for her second verdict from the same Appeals Court for the murder. If it acquits her again, then there is a chance to get the child abuse verdict overturned. But realistically, what are the chances for her to get justice in Finland now, especially when the elections are in April? Even the Chancellor of Justice of Finland comes from the same area of West Finland, and knows personally very well the the investigating police officer, who turned Anneli into a sole suspect. All these powerful authorities are connected and covering their backs.
Apparently Finland is the least corrupt country in the world together with New Zealand. Money may not exchange hands, but favours and mutual arrangements are regularly made in various networks of influential people.
A local man did confess the murder to his physiotherapist about a month after the murder, but the police ignored the lead. The physiotherapist did not give up, even though the police had ignored the information she had given them. She finally testified in court last autumn, but the prosecutors immediately informed the press that they are prosecuting the witness for false statements and libel. She is waiting for her trial now.
There is also an other suspect that has escaped justice, because the police is focusing in covering their tracks. This is also a local man who was found the next day with a filleting knife in his possession, and with wounds in his face and hands. All initial suspects were let go, as their DNA did not match with the one found at the murder scene. Seven years after the murder the police revealed that they had contaminated the sample in their laboratory, the DNA belonged to one of their workers. Still, they would not reopen the investigation into the original suspects.
You asked whether the brother of Anneli has been investigated for snatching the children from his sister? No, and there is no chance of that either, as long as there is a cover up of how the social services let these children down. It was their duty, after all, to monitor the children, – which they failed to do.
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Lesen alle Stern Crime 7/2016 “Der Anruf”
Please, read Stern Crime 7/2016 “Der Anruf” (The Emergency Call). Unfortunately you cannot get the magazine here in London, nor in Helsinki. You’ll have to ask a friend to send it over.
It tells the story of the Ulvila murder case, and what happened to the widow and her children. Its very sad, indeed.