Anneli Jäätteenmäki: Encyclopedia II - Anneli Jäätteenmäki - Resignation and criminal investigation

Anneli Jäätteenmäki - Resignation and criminal investigation

Anneli Jäätteenmäki resigned on June 18, 2003, under pressure from the accusation that she'd lied to the Parliament and the public over how she'd acquired confidential Foreign Ministry documents used by herself during the election campaign. The documents contained diplomatic information from a meeting between USA's president George W. Bush and the then prime minister Paavo Lipponen about Finland's stand in the Iraq war. Jäätteenmäki used the information to suggest that her rival, the Social Democrat leader Paavo Lipponen, had secretly offered Finnish support for the US-led coalition, a substantial breach against the official policy of neutrality in Finland's foreign politics. Jäätteenmäki broke the traditional unity and silence behind Finland's security policies. As the elections turned out to be narrow, the defeated Social Democrats found reasons to suspect her untraditional campaign being decisive for the outcome, which soured the relationship between the two major coalition partners.

After the leaked documents were published in several newspapers in March, the police launched a criminal investigation on grounds of the official secrets act. On June 11th Prime Minister Jäätteenmäki was heard as a witness by the police, which led to increasing pressure on her to come clear on her role in the leak. On the same week, the incriminating minutes of a meeting of Centre Party leaders was leaked to the press, as later came clear, via the Centre Party second vice-chairman Hannu Takkula. On June 16th it came to light that the presidential aide Martti Manninen, affiliated with the Centre Party, had leaked the Foreign Ministry documents. On June 18th, Mrs. Jäätteenmäki gave her "full explanation" to the Parliament and apologized to the President, claiming that she had been faxed the documents without asking for them, and that she had not known of their secrecy. The Parliament was not satisfied with her account, and once Mr. Manninen on the same afternoon publicly claimed that Mrs. Jäätteenmäki had specifically and forcefully asked for the information, and that he'd be able to prove it, her coalition partners made it clear that they had no trust in her leadership. She resigned the same evening, citing the lack of political trust, and without admitting any wrongdoing.

Consequently she announced on June 24th that she would resign as the leader of the Centre Party. Matti Vanhanen was elected as new party leader on October 5th and he succeeded her as Prime Minister.

The police investigation into the leak concluded on December 19, 2003 that Mrs. Jäätteenmäki should be prosecuted for aiding or abetting Mr. Manninen in revealing state secrets in contravention of the law. However, on March 19, 2004 the Helsinki District Court acquitted Mrs. Jäätteenmäki on all counts.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Resignation and criminal investigation", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki