Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen wondered on his blog yesterday about circumstances in which a foreigner’s residence permit can be withdrawn in the wake of the New Year’s Eve massacre committed by a Kosovan Albanian.

Ibrahim Shkupolli, 43, murdered five people before turning the gun on himself in his rampage in Espoo, near Helsinki. According to police, his massacre was systematic. He killed his ex-girlfriend, who had worked at the branch of the Prisma supermarket in Espoo’s Sella Mall, and then four of her colleagues.

The tragedy has led the Prime Minister to ponder how the residence permit of a foreign criminal can be rescinded. Vanhanen noted that Shkupolli had applied for Finnish citizenship but his application had been declined because of his many criminal convictions including for assault and firearms offences. Nevertheless, his residence permit was still extended.

‘Lack of Integration’

Vanhanen wondered if the officials granting residence permit extensions have enough information on the permit holders to make an informed decision. The Prime Minister also contemplated whether tougher gun laws would have stopped Shkupolli getting hold of an illegal firearm and whether a lack of ‘integration’ had played in part in Shkupolli’s actions.

Helsingin Sanomat today quoted an Immigration Service official as saying that Ibrahim Shkupolli may have qualified for deportation owing to his criminal record.
 
Esko Repo, the head of the agency’s asylum unit, was quoted as saying that Finnish legislation stipulated that a resident could be deported if repeatedly convicted of a crime or handed an unconditional prison sentence of 12 months or more.

Latest Information on Massacre

It is now believed that the shootings were part of a bloody revenge by Shkupolli. According to the Finnish News Agency, the first murder – that of Shkupolli’s 42 year-old ex-girl-friend – was conducted in an ‘extremely brutal manner’.

Nelonen TV has claimed she was stabbed to death. Their relationship had been very turbulent and she had previously secured a restraining order against him.

Shkupolli killed her before travelling to Prisma where he killed four people – three men and one woman – during a six minute killing spree.

‘The wounds on the victims suggest that the killer specifically wished to kill them. They were not merely bystanders who happened to get in the line of fire,’ commented Det. Chief Inspector Tero Haapla of Finland’s National Bureau of Investigation.

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