A British man convicted of attempting to murder a Finnish woman in Joensuu has had his prison sentence increased to six and a half years by the Eastern Finland Court of Appeal.
Satinder Minhas, 32, was sentenced to six years and six months in prison, one year more than the sentence handed down by the North Karelia District Court in January. The appeal court also increased the compensation that Minhas must pay to the victim.
The ruling is not yet final. Minhas can still apply to the Supreme Court for permission to appeal.
Minhas and the woman first met online, but they had never met in person before he travelled from Britain to Finland in January 2025. She had told him in early 2024 that she wanted their relationship to remain a friendship. She later told him that she was in a relationship with someone else.
According to the court proceedings, Minhas travelled to Joensuu, rented a vehicle and spent about five days monitoring the woman’s movements. Police concluded that his actions were motivated by revenge following her rejection of him.
The attack took place as the woman was walking home from a grocery shop. Minhas approached her and ordered her into his rental vehicle, telling her that he had a knife. She managed to escape on foot.
Minhas then tried three times to hit her with the vehicle, according to the court. The woman avoided the car and got into another vehicle in an attempt to protect herself. Minhas rammed that vehicle before continuing to pursue her.
He later chased the woman while carrying a hammer. Members of the public intervened and restrained him until police officers arrived.
Police found a knife on Minhas. They also discovered two ropes, cable ties and a chainsaw inside his rental vehicle. According to the court proceedings, he had purchased the equipment in Joensuu.
STT reported that the appeal court ruling also found that Minhas had planned to decapitate the woman. The court determined that the planned method of killing would have involved particular brutality and cruelty under Finnish law.
Minhas told the Court of Appeal that he would not have been capable of killing the woman and described his thoughts about killing her as a fantasy. The court did not accept that explanation.
Instead, the court found that he had taken concrete steps to put an advance plan into action. Those steps included travelling from Britain to Finland, locating the woman and obtaining equipment that could be used in the planned attack.
“There had been a persistent effort to carry out a plan made in advance,” the court said in its ruling, according to STT.
The Court of Appeal found no reasonable doubt that Minhas intended to kill the woman. It identified revenge connected to jealousy as the motive and considered the offence to have been planned to an unusual degree.
A psychiatric assessment carried out during the district court proceedings found that Minhas had substantially reduced capacity to control his behaviour because of a serious mental disorder. The courts therefore considered him to have diminished criminal responsibility.
The Court of Appeal upheld that finding but concluded that the sentence before taking diminished responsibility into account should have been eight years rather than seven. The court said Minhas was nevertheless capable of understanding the nature of his actions and that they were unlawful.
After the reduction for diminished criminal responsibility was applied, the appeal court imposed the final sentence of six and a half years.
Minhas was also convicted of two counts of attempted assault and aggravated endangerment of traffic safety. The appeal court’s decision can still be taken to the Supreme Court if permission to appeal is granted.
