Telecommunications - Ex-Sonera CEO Arrested

The former chief executive of Sonera was arrested Tuesday, the company confirmed, amid a widening police probe into claims the telecommunications company illegally monitored the phone calls of its workers and some news reporters.

Kaj-Erik Relander, who left Sonera in 2001, was arrested by Finnish police, company spokesman Jyrki Karasvirta said. A police spokesman could not be immediately reached. Finnish media also reported the arrest.

Karasvirta said Relander was arrested on suspicion of breaking the country's communications privacy laws.

It marked the sixth arrest in the widening probe, which was spurred after Finland's Helsingin Sanomat reported that Sonera traced its employees' phone calls in an attempt to find out who may have leaked information to the media about internal company disputes.

Relander was Sonera's CEO at the time of the alleged monitoring.

Earlier Tuesday, a Helsinki court Tuesday approved the continued detention of a pair of Sonera executives and two corporate security employees, police said.

Police are investigating whether Sonera - Finland's biggest telecommunications company - illegally monitored the call records of its own workers and reporters in 2000 and 2001.

The four Sonera employees are being held amid suspicion they violated Finland's data-security laws.

A fifth employee held by police was released Tuesday by the Helsinki District Court.

The arrests began when the head of corporate security at Sonera, Juha E. Miettinen, and two of his co-workers were detained. Executive vice president Jari Jaakkola and vice president Henri Harmia were arrested Friday. All four were suspended from their jobs at Sonera.

At the time of the alleged monitoring, Jaakkola was head of corporate communications. Harmia has been the coordinator of Sonera's $6.2 billion merger with Sweden's Telia. Both companies have said the investigation will not affect the merger.

In Finland, only the police - with a court order - can have access to information about dialed and received calls. The communications authorities said Sonera's position as the country's biggest phone operator would make any monitoring a particularly serious offense.

Sonera has been the subject of several recent investigations, related mainly to its losses from investments in third-generation cell phone licenses.

Formerly called Telecom Finland, Sonera has 2.4 million wireless subscribers and operates more than 770,000 phone regular land lines in Finland. It employs 8,200 people.

Last week, Sonera shareholders gave final approval for the merger with Telia. The new TeliaSonera, which will be the largest phone company in the Nordic and Baltic regions, will be 64 percent owned by the Swedish and Finnish governments.