Center Party’s newspaper: ‘What goes around, comes around’
Kesknädal, the official mouthpiece of the Center Party, published an ominous editorial in light of the bribery allegations against the party’s leader, Edgar Savisaar.
The weekly quoted the words of Arnold Sinisalu, the Internal Security Service chief (KaPo), who had said that “corpse is a corpse, it doesn’t matter whether it was stabbed once or ten times,” at the press conference announcing the allegations against Savisaar. Apparently, this was Sinisalu’s response to Kesknädal’s remark that Port of Tallinn corruption case, which KaPo made public just a few weeks earlier, involved considerably larger sums.
The weekly referenced the case connected to the company, where the board was dominated by members of the Reform Party, and said that “over there, just one man accepted over one million euros in bribes, but in so-called Savisaar’s case, the prosecution is investigating seven men for couple of thousands of euros”, an indication that the weekly sees Savisaar’s case receiving unproportional amount of attention. This could also be interpreted as a subtle hint that Reform Party is trying to divert attention away from the Port of Tallinn investigation – a suggestion that has already been rejected by KaPo and the prosecution, which both stressed their independence.
The paper says that looking back at the recent political history, “Estonia’s taxpayer-funded security and judicial structures have hunted Savisaar for decades, but for the embarrassment and bewilderment of Sinisalu and his superiors, the prey is still at large, a knife stuck in his back.” “Is the stabbing still in progress?” the paper asked rhetorically.
Kesknädal also wonders where is humanity and taking into account one’s health condition, then adopting a more ominous tone. “For the opponents of Savisaar, it may be an exciting time – to humilitate a gray-haired wheelchair-bound man – but Sinisalu and other officials do not know what the future will bring,” the paper said, adding that "the power structures may undergo the same kind of horrors that were experienced by helpless Edgar Savisaar, who was brutally separated from his kindred while KaPo searched his house in Hundisilma."
The weekly then took altogether an other-worldly tone, saying that “what goes around comes around”. “Perhaps the officials of KaPo and the Prosecution’s Office don’t grasp the idea that there are also higher forces in existence. One cannot compete with cosmic laws. If the fate strikes them in helpless situation, then it will not be as splendid anymore. But the difference is that while an act against Savisaar was ultimately unfair, their punishment will be just,” Kesknädal said, adding that “times, they have always changed in Estonia.”
State Prosecution and KaPo disclosed last week that Tallinn Mayor Edgar Savisaar is suspect in episodes of corruption: unjustified extension of a lease contract for which he obtained benefits; allowing the construction of a house that lacked a building permit to continue in return for assets; exchange of land plots and promised compensation; and an episode connected to a tender, for which property or assets were obtained.
Savisaar was suspended from his mayor’s office on Wednesday by the Harju County Court.
He has so far rejected all the accusations against him.
Editor: S. Tambur