Finnish Mikko Sarvela to top international prison service post in The Hague

Finnish Mikko Sarvela has been named to a top international post in the field of prison services as the Commanding Officer of the United Nations Detention Unit (UNDU) of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague, the Netherlands starting from the beginning of July.

The Detention Unit is located in a separate building within a Dutch prison in Scheveningen, The Hague about three kilometres away from the actual Tribunal. At the moment, the Detention Unit holds 27 detainees of whom the most well known are Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic.

Mr Sarvela transfers to The Hague from the EU civilian crisis management mission EUPOL COPPS in Palestine where he has worked as a penitentiary expert since 2010. In Palestine, he has focused especially on the planning and initiation of new prisons as well as on the training programmes for prison staff, mainly prison officers.

Before going to Palestine, Mr Sarvela, 38-year-old Master of Social Sciences, worked as the director of Sulkava Prison and Mikkeli Community Sanctions Office from which post he is on leave of absence. Within the Finnish prison services, he has also worked, among others, as the assistant director of Naarajärvi Prison, which is located close to the town of Pieksämäki.

Further information:
Commanding Officer Mikko Sarvela, tel. +358 50 501 3232
Head of Communication Usko Määttä, Criminal Sanctions Agency, tel. +358 29 56 88570.

Published 27.6.2013