This section contains news from open sources on persons involved in jihadist activities or criminal activities satellite to jihadism in Finland.
A Finnish woman, aged 40, has been charged with aggravated human trafficking for taking her two minor children to Syria in 2014, in an area controlled by ISIS. The family lived in the al-Hol camp. The woman, who holds Finnish and Russian citizenship, denies the charges and faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted.
Source: https://yle.fi/a/74-20242113
A Finnish Security and Intelligence Service operation helped, after years, disrupt an ISIL-linked terrorist network operating in Europe and nearby regions. One of the people connected to the network, Ruslan Meyriev was sentenced in Belgium to 12 years in prison for terrorist financing and planning an attack. He had been living in Finland Wien He was arrested in Sweden in August 2024 and later extradited to Belgium. Finnish authorities said the operation helped reduce the threat posed by the network.
Source: https://supo.fi/-/kolumni-terrorismin-torjunta-tuotti-tulosta
A Danish national named Yousif C. was arrested by Danish police in the vicinity of Copenhagen. This arrest was based on a European arrest warrant that was issued by an investigating judge of the German Federal Court of Justice on 22 May 2026.
Yousif C. is a member of the terrorist organisation Hamas. In July 2025, he handed over five pistols and ammunition to Abed Al G., who was prosecuted separately.
He then handed the firearms over to Mohammed A., who was also being prosecuted separately, for onward transport to Vienna. This served as preparation for Hamas assassination attempts on Israeli or Jewish institutions in Germany and Europe.
The accused will appear before the investigating judge of the Federal Court of Justice following his transfer to Germany.
From June 2026, Finland will introduce a major reform of its terrorism legislation. The new rules will expand the range of activities considered terrorist offences, introduce new criminal offences and increase several penalties. The will also target terrorist preparation, training, certain terrorism related travel and assistance in committing terrorist offences. The main goal is to make the fight against terrorism more effective.
Source: https://oikeusministerio.fi/terrorismilainsaadannon-kokonaisuudistus
Iraq’s judiciary had handed over two detained foreigners, from Finland and the United States, to their countries after finding that had not been ISIS group members.
The National Center for International Judicial Cooperation (NCIJC) said it has handed “two suspects – a minor from Finland and another from the United States – to the competent authorities in their countries after it was confirmed that they don’t belong to the ISIS terrorists.”
An Iraqi court ordered the Finnish minor’s release on March 31 and transferred him to the Finnish Embassy in Baghdad for repatriation, according to a statement released by the embassy days prior.
The minor was taken to Syria in mid-2010s and was placed in the now-dismantled al-Hol camp, which housed relatives of ISIS fighters, in February 2019, and was eventually transferred alongside thousands of ISIS detainees from northeast Syria to Baghdad in February 2026, according to the Embassy.
Sources: https://thenewregion.com/posts/5106 and https://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/5262123-iraq-hands-over-two-cleared-isis-suspects-us-finland
Finnish authorities repatriated a minor Finnish boy – Finnish citizenship – from Iraq to Finland. The Finnish Foreign Ministry reports that an Iraqi court on 31 March ordered his release and transfer to the Finnish embassy in Baghdad for repatriation.
According to the ministry, the boy was taken to Syria in the mid-2010s and placed in the al-Hol camp in February 2019. This past February, he was moved from northeastern Syria to Baghdad, among some 5,700 male detainees, where the Finnish embassy verified his identity.
Some ten Finns remained in the camp earlier this year, most of them children, according to the Finnish Foreign Ministry.
Source: https://yle.fi/a/74-20219001
Finnish police announced the arrest in Helsinki of three men suspected of involvement in ISIS-related activities. The men are not Finnish citizens and are all in their 30s.
They were suspected of contributing to the activities of ISIS. The alleged crimes occurred between 2023 and 2024.
Source: https://shafaq.com/en/World/Finland-arrests-3-suspected-of-ISIS-related-activities-Police
A Finnish citizen suspected of having links to the terrorist organisation ISIS has been arrested in Turkey.
The Finnish national was arrested along with 24 Iraqis in Ankara, Turkey, during anti-terror operations, based on intelligence that a group of 29 individuals in the capital were linked to Isis and were active in Syria.
Source: https://yle.fi/a/3-11582603
The District Court of South-West Finland has found a Moroccan man, Abderrahman Bouanane, guilty on two counts of murder with terrorist intent and eight counts of attempted murder with terrorist intent, and sentenced him to life in prison. This marks the first time that a crime in Finland has been legally classified as terrorism.
The 23-year-old admitted to killing two women and injuring eight other people on and near Turku’s main square in August 2017.
Bouanane released a video before the stabbing spree, claiming it in the name of ISIS. The man arrived in Finland in 2016 as an asylum seeker, but his application was rejected later that year. He has been in prison in Turku since the attack.
Source: https://yle.fi/a/3-10257371
A 29 years old Finnish man was arrested in London on suspicion of preparing terrorist acts. He was detained at Heathrow airport while waiting for a connecting flight. Supo, the Finnish police, are cooperating with British authorities in the investigation. The case is still under investigation, and no further details about the man or his alleged plans have been released.
Source: https://yle.fi/a/3-10254335
Finnish police have arrested two more suspects after stabbing spree happened on August 18, which killed two women and wounded eight other people. Police had already detained the main suspect, a Moroccan asylum seeker, and three other Moroccan men.
The two new suspects gave different stories to Finnish and Swedish authorities, telling the former they were from Algeria and the latter they were Moroccan.
Source: https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/finnish-police-arrest-two-new-suspects/jgnkwo4xz
On Friday afternoon, 18 August 2017, an asylum seeker stabbed 10 supposedly randomly chosen people in the centre of Turku. Police investigates the knife attack as terrorism.
Source: https://www.scup.com/doi/10.1080/14043858.2017.1396055
An Iraqi migrant to Finland has been found guilty of committing a war crime after he posted images of himself on Facebook with the head of an Islamic State group fighter. Jebbar Salman Ammar, 29, was given a 16 month suspended sentence by the Pirkanmaa district court.
The court found he had desecrated the corpse of a fighter by posting three images on Facebook of himself with the head of the fighter in the Iraqi city of Tikrit.
He admitted to publishing the pictures and to having fought for IS, but he denied committing a war crime.
Source: https://www.rfi.fr/en/contenu/20160318-iraqi-decapitated-head-post-guilty-war-crime
Finnish police have arrested Iraqi twins who are believed to have featured in a video showing a massacre carried out by the Islamic State militant group (ISIS). The pair, aged 23, are suspected of killing 11 people in the Iraqi city of Tikrit in June 2014. They returned to Finland in September and were arrested in the southwestern town of Forssa.
Source: https://www.newsweek.com/finland-arrests-iraqi-twins-linked-isis-attack-tikrit-404034
Finnish officials say a 29-year-old Iraqi man has been arrested on suspicion of committing war crimes in his home country last year.
The Pirkanmaa Regional Court in southern Finland says the suspect, Jebbar-Salman Ammar, was being held in custody on suspicion of war crimes in Iraq in June 2014.
Source: https://www.ksl.com/article/37383596/finland-arrests-iraqi-man-suspected-of-war-crimes
Three Finnish men were arrested in Helsinki on suspicion of carrying out “terrorist” crimes and joining foreign fighters abroad. The case was linked to Syria and ISIS.
A man and a woman with foreign backgrounds have been detained in Finland on suspicion of financing terrorism and recruiting people for terror attacks on another country. The two suspects had been under surveillance by the security intelligence service before their arrest on September 7.
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