Serbovia
Establishing Nation
Kansan Uutiset
Published by the Undersecretariat of Revolutionary Propagation, Socialist Party of Fennia
Former Civil War White executioner exposed, arrested by authorities
Kuhtala
Published by the Undersecretariat of Revolutionary Propagation, Socialist Party of Fennia
Former Civil War White executioner exposed, arrested by authorities
Kuhtala
State Security officials in Kuhtala, Länsipohja Province, say that they have successfully identified and arrested a now 57- year old man believed to be responsible for dozens of unlawful executions of captured People's Militia prisoners during the 1920-1924 Revolutionary War. The man, who acted as the proprietor of a small Kuhtala meat shop under a false identity, has now been identified as Ahti Virtanen, a former Staff Sergeant in the defunct Royal Fennian Army and a member of a military detail subordinated to the former Monarchist secret police. Staff Sergeant Virtanen's unit was responsible for managing the White-run Parola Castle prison camp in Parola, Hämeenmaa Province. During the Revolutionary War, the Parola camp attained widespread infamy for a number of atrocities and massacres committed against its prisoners.
Specifically, Virtanen is accused of acting as a torturer and an interrogator at the camp and also acting in the role of an executioner for the unlawful military tribunal organized in the camp by White forces, by which dozens of imprisoned People's Militiamen were tried and executed in kangaroo trials during the camp's operation between 1922 and 1924. State Security officials have said that Virtanen's culpability for murder can specifically be attributed in 115 documented executions of unlawfully tried Revolutionary prisoners, and that charges of murder will be brought against him by the People's Bureau of Prosecutions. In addition, he faces other charges under the War Crimes Acts enacted by the Interim People's Directory in 1923. These charges relate to his involvement in the torture of prisoners in Parola. Prosecutors intend to seek the death penalty in this affair.
Commander Mauno Ahonen, head of the Internal Bureau of State Security, said that the White murderer's exposure came about by almost complete chance. A month ago, a Revolutionary veteran who had been held in Parola during the Civil War coincidentally visited Virtanen's meat shop in Kuhtala, and then identified the man specifically by a facial scar he received in the course of a prisoner's uprising that took place at the castle in January 1924. The veteran quickly reported this to the People's Police, who passed the sighting on to a State Security detail responsible for tracking down White war criminals from the Revolutionary War. They in turn brought in other Parola survivors to make a positive identification, after which Virtanen was promptly taken into custody by State Security personnel. Both the Directorate of State Security and the local branch of the Fennian Socialist Party will issue a commendation to the Revolutionary veteran responsible for identifying Virtanen and providing the information leading to his arrest.
Virtanen is believed to have survived from the collapse of the White forces and the April 1924 liberation of Parola up to this day by living under the identity of a Revolutionary prisoner in Parola, who most likely died in imprisonment and had age and appearance sufficiently resembling Virtanen. His theft of identity and flight apparently took place a short time before Parola was liberated and as the Whites were hastily evacuating the castle and attempting to erase evidence of their atrocities. However, the archives of the camp administration and its military tribunal were partially left behind in panic, and after the liberation of Parola Virtanen was identified as the perpetrator of the aforementioned killings and an arrest warrant was issued against him. Now, he will have to face justice for his actions.
Thirty years after the Revolutionary War ended, Ahti Virtanen will now be brought to justice and he will be appropriately punished for his deeds. With the thirty-year hunt for the remaining White war criminals still ongoing, both those who have remained within the FSPR and those who fled abroad during the collapse of White resistance and the subsequent years, the case serves as a warning to the remaining White criminals. The reach of Revolutionary justice is long, and the hunt shall not end before the last of the White murderers are brought in to face the consequences of their actions.
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