Steen Christensen, who is a Danish national sentenced to life in prison for the 1997 murders of two Finnish police officers in Helsinki has once again been refused parole.
Published: 05/08/25 | 20:36
This is the third time a court has rejected Christensen’s bid for early release. Now aged 60 he has been serving his sentence in Denmark after being transferred there following his conviction meaning that decisions regarding his parole fall under Danish legal authority.
Christensen has spent more than 27 years behind bars. His lawyer Janus Malcolm Pedersen stated that his conduct in prison has been exemplary.
In the early 1990s Christensen was given a lengthy prison term in Denmark for a string of crimes including multiple bank robberies, hostage-taking, and the rape of a hostage. He was granted unsupervised parole but instead of returning to custody he travelled to Finland.
In October 1997, he committed an armed robbery at Helsinki’s Palace Hotel. Veteran officers Antero Palo and Eero Holsti responded to the incident but Christensen confronted them at gunpoint and shot both officers before they could draw their service weapons.
During interrogation Christensen confessed to both the robbery and the killings. He claimed the first shooting was accidental which then prompted him to shoot the second officer.
In May 1998 at the age of 32 he was sentenced to life imprisonment for two counts of murder and one of aggravated robbery.
Since Finland gained independence just over 130 police officers have lost their lives in the line of duty most of them between 1918 and 1944.
