Paet and Verhofstadt ask Mogherini's help to free Kohver
Urmas Paet, Estonian MEP, and Guy Verhofstadt, the leader of Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Group (ALDE) in the European Parliament, ask the European foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini use her power to force Russians to release the abducted Estonian internal security service agent.
According to Paet, they have asked Mogherini to take up the Eston Kohver issue at her meetings and correspondence with Russian authorities, and do everything at her disposal to secure the agent's release.
Verhofstadt and Paet also pointed out in a letter that Russia clearly violated the international law with an illegal abduction and furthermore, by denying a proper legal help for Kohver.
“We are extremely concerned about the current proceedings, as the Russian state-appointed lawyer does not offer appropriate legal help,” Paet said.
Kohver, Estonian authorities say, was in the line of duty and collecting information on cross-border corruption within the framework of an information collection plan in the vicinity of the Estonian-Russian border, when he was abducted on September 5th. Estonia has always insisted that Kohver's abduction violates international law. Russia is holding him on spying charges.
Editor: S. Tambur