Finland — Legal Help

Selling and buying sex between adults is legal in Finland, but with hard edges: pimping and brothel-keeping are crimes, buying or selling in a public place is banned (Public Order Act 2003), and buying sex from a victim of pimping or trafficking is a criminal offence under Criminal Code chapter 20 section 8 (introduced 2006, extended in 2015 so that negligence — 'should have known' — is enough to convict). The age of consent is 16, but any commercial sexual act involving a person under 18 is a serious crime. Emergency number 112; police handle routine matters in good English but you are entitled to an interpreter.

If arrested, you have the right to a lawyer before questioning and to state-funded legal aid subject to means testing. Your embassy (all major Western embassies are in Helsinki) can supply lawyer lists, notify family and visit you in detention, but cannot intervene in the case or get you released.