Finnish court hands life sentence for Oulu torture killing, victim suffocated with toilet paper

A district court in Oulu has sentenced a 36-year-old man to life imprisonment for the torture and murder of a man in his twenties in an apartment on Sairaalanrinne last October, Yle reports.

Janne Tapani Kiviaho, born in 1989, was identified as the primary perpetrator in the killing, which culminated in the victim being suffocated with toilet paper after hours of violence. A second man, Lasse Henrikki Mäkelä, also born in 1989, was convicted as an accomplice to manslaughter and sentenced to five years and eight months in prison, including time for a prior suspended sentence for assault.

The victim, lured to the apartment under the pretense of settling a fabricated debt, was bound and subjected to prolonged abuse, including beatings with the blunt side of an axe. Police discovered his body days later, wrapped in a trash bag in the bedroom, after visiting the apartment on unrelated business.

A third defendant, a woman present during the violence, was acquitted of murder charges after the court found no evidence of her direct involvement in the killing. Another woman, who had encouraged Kiviaho to demand repayment of the fake debt but was not present during the murder, received a three-month suspended sentence for attempted extortion, incitement to assault, and three counts of illegal threats.

All four defendants had denied the charges. The district court’s ruling is not yet final and may be appealed.