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The deputy mayor of the capital of Finland, Helsinkiis under investigation and faces possible lawsuits and claims for damages, as well as resignation, after being caught spraying graffiti in a railway tunnel last weekend.
Finland’s Transport Infrastructure Agency told the YLE radio and television program on Wednesday that cleaning illegally painted graffiti by Paavo Arhinmäki, one of Helsinki’s four deputy mayors, had cost the city around 3,500 euros.
Arhinmäki, 46, and a friend were surprised by guards in a train tunnel in eastern Helsinki on Friday just after completing the graffiti, which Finnish street art experts said looked partly inspired by works seen in New York City in the 70s.
Finland’s largest newspaper Helsingin Sanomat published a photo of the large-scale graffiti in a tweet. In a Facebook post on Sunday, Arhinmäki, who is known as a strong supporter of street art and as a creator of graffiti in his youth, apologized for his “stupid joke”. Arhinmäki is a former MP and chairman of the Left Alliance, and served as minister of culture and sport in 2011-2014.
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Police are investigating the act as vandalism and interference with train traffic, which had to be temporarily halted as a result of the accident. The railway tunnel is used by freight trains to and from a port in Helsinki. It was not immediately clear whether Arhinmäki would face legal charges. “I have committed a crime and I bear full responsibility for it,” Arhinmäki told YLE on Monday, but he refused to resign from his post and from the Helsinki City Council, where his Left Alliance party is backing him.