A 25-year-old man arrested last week in France for his suspected role in the data breach of the Finnish psychotherapy centre Vastaamo has requested help from a lawyer in Finland.
The suspect, Julius Kivimäki, requested assistance from attorney Peter Jaari through authorities.
The attorney said that work is underway to determine whether there are any legal hurdles preventing him from representing Kivimäki, and if none are found he would be interested in the task.
Jaari said he has represented Kivimäki in the past, but has not been in contact with him since November.
Kivimäki, who was arrested in Paris on Friday, is suspected of trying to extort victims with the personal, sensitive data he allegedly stole from Vastaamo's database.
Helsinki District Court remanded Kivimäki in absentia last October and the suspect was also added to Europol's "most wanted" list.
Finland's National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has cooperated with French authorities over the past few weeks in order to pinpoint Kivimäki's location, according to Marko Leponen, Detective Chief Inspector at the NBI's Cybercrime Centre.
"When a person's whereabouts are unclear, police always need a bit of good luck in finding the person. In this way, officers got lucky finding him during a regular operation," Leponen said.
The NBI has referred to the suspect as Aleksanteri Tomminpoika Kivimäki, the same name used in Europol's fugitive description.
Kivimäki is suspected of crimes including aggravated computer breach, aggravated attempted extortion, aggravated dissemination of information violating personal privacy, extortion, attempted extortion, computer breach, message interception and falsification of evidence.
Work to extradite the suspect to Finland continues.