Police have apologised for their actions towards May Day marchers in Helsinki.
On Thursday police briefly detained 10 people attending the traditional workers' parade in the capital. They described the marchers as anarchists carrying weapons disguised as flag handles. But in a statement on Friday police said not all the confiscated flagpoles were linked to the anarchist protest.
”A closer examination of the matter has revealed that the flagpoles that were confiscated from cars were not connected to the anarchists’ demonstration,” the police said in a statement.
Law enforcement officials will return the confiscated flagholders to their owners. Officers broke some of them so that they would fit into a police car. The owners will be reimbursed for the damage.
Paatero: Plans based on social media
National Police Commissioner Mikko Paatero defended police moves to detain self-styled anarchists.
He told Yle that police were prepared for violence based on information gleaned from social media. Paatero stressed that officers do not intervene in the behaviour of people who are behaving calmly.
The police actions in Helsinki have aroused widespread criticism. Left Alliance leader Paavo Arhinmäki, among others, has called for an investigation.
Right-wingers freed in Pori
Meanwhile police in the west-coast town of Pori on Friday released seven people who had been detained during May Day events there.
They were taken into custody after a smoke bomb and other objects were thrown from a roof into a crowd at a Left Alliance event. The detainees admitted to some of the charges. Some are members of an extreme far-right group calling itself Kansallinen vastarintaliike (national resistance front). The investigation of the case is continuing.
