Not necessarily. I've spent the last few years fighting various hacking charges in Finland and will most likely continue to do so for several years to come.
The law enforcement here will consistently take anything the FBI tells them as a fact, even when the information provided by them has been consistently shown to be false or even maliciously fabricated.
I spent 3 months in jail in 2014 because the FBI emailed the Finnish NBI and alleged that I had perpetrated various attacks against large US tech companies, they provided some information vaguely connecting me to the crimes and claimed to have further evidence they'd deliver shortly. They requested that the Finnish police arrest me and seize my equipment, they did so without question.
Based on that single contact from the FBI the Finnish NBI held me in jail for 3 months and banned me from using the phone or in any manner communicating with anyone outside the jail. After the 3 months had passed the FBI had still failed to deliver any evidence, and the Finnish police had failed to discover any. In fact, they had unquestionably discovered heaps of evidence against the aforementioned allegations since the very day they arrested me. Just a few days before Christmas they were forced to very reluctantly release me.
Now it's 2016 and I just recently got a letter stating that most of those charges have been dropped as the FBI has failed to deliver the promised evidence. I've also received letters informing me of various covert surveillance techniques utilized against me after my release. These are supposed to require an even higher standard of proof than keeping someone in investigative custody, but obviously they're hard to contest when you aren't told about them.
Incompetent fucks desperately hoping to score big wins for their careers or with personal vendettas are hardly an US only problem, but at least in the US I could've fought the FBI in court. That's hardly an option here. The only thing that's better here are the sentencing policies.
That's sounds like quite an interesting story if what you are saying is taken as true and at face value. Have you tried contacting press, or lawyers in the US who would want to take on your case?
Honestly, going after the FBI for lying to the Finnish police would probably be a pretty hard case to win. Especially considering how blatantly unreasonable the behaviour of the .fi authorities has been.
It's possible that I could win. But that wouldn't really achieve anything, it wouldn't make the .fi authorities stop.
The best option I have available is to keep fighting my charges in Finland, as no matter whether I win or lose it'll be significantly harder for any other country to prosecute me for those same crimes. The courts here are fairly reasonable, while they require ridiculously low standards of proof, you essentially have to kill someone to actually go to prison here. Perhaps that makes it easier to say "guilty" just to play safe, keep the LE and prosecutors happy.
If your story is true, then you were, as it appears, wrongfully and unlawfully imprisoned. I think you should at least try contacting press and some lawyers -- if what you are saying is a true story.
It sounds pretty interesting to me -- I imagine someone in the press would pick it up.
>If your story is true, then you were, as it appears, wrongfully and unlawfully imprisoned. I think you should at least try contacting press and some lawyers -- if what you are saying is a true story.
I was indeed wrongfully imprisoned, but by the Finnish government. I can and will receive compensation from them but at best that's going to be a few thousand euros per month, a nominal sum considering the time lost. It's hardly an irregular thing here, mostly because every single case where a person is taken into investigative custody and not given a prison sentence is treated as such. This has created a situation where these cases are so common that the justice system treats them as acceptable routine.
Does Finland not have protections against defamation? If someone that wasn't an American FBI employee falsely accused you of a crime, would you have a legal remedy?
Article 24, paragraphs 8-10?
It looks like you would have to file a criminal complaint in order to proceed with a civil claim, and the state cannot act on criminal charges until you actually make the complaint, unless the defamation appeared in the mass media. If the Finnish prosecutor declines to act against the FBI, your only remaining remedy is to file a claim in the court of public opinion by getting a local journalist to tell your story on a slow news day.
You owe it to yourself and all noncriminal Finnish hackers to at least make a defamation complaint to Finnish police against the FBI. Your statute of limitations is 5 years.
I've actually been thinking of filing several of such complaints for a while, but it's sort of been on the backburner. However on monday I'll see if I can get copies of the original communications and get the complaints filed.
Rather unlikely that any prosecutor would pick them up, but who knows?
I am not sure where you are from, but I agree that it can also get worse.