Tallinn to Sue Daily for Corruption Allegations
Raepress, Tallinn's official press service, has said they plan to take daily Äripäev to court over claims printed on Friday and Monday regarding alleged corruption in the capital's corridors of power.
“We all have reason to believe that had investigative authorities, the prosecution and court found in cases connected to Ivo Parbus or Elmar Sepp or other cases any reason to impeach Tallinn's leaders, they would have done so without hesitation. The problem is that there was nothing and Äripäev just wants to compensate for its political defeat,” said Ain Saarna, head of the city's public relations department, in a statement on Monday.
Saarna said the corruption allegations not only damage Tallinn as a legal entity and the city's leaders, but also hurt officials, businesses and all inhabitants. He added that it was the city government's duty to take the daily to court.
The city will seek the refutation of the false claims and 20 percent of the paper's annual profit (Äripäev made a post-tax profit of 1 million euros in 2012), with the proceeds going towards Christmas bonuses for kindergarten teachers.
Äripäev published excerpts from a criminal case concerning former Tallinn adviser Parbus and former city council member Sepp on Friday and Monday, saying that the case which landed the pair in jail was controlled from the very top of Tallinn's power pyramid.
Last March, Parbus, a former adviser to Deputy Mayor Taavi Aas, was sentenced to three years in jail on bribery charges, with Sepp handed a six-month sentence for arranging the bribes. The case involved smoothing the way for a development of a project in the Tondi area of Tallinn. The owners of a plot wished to build high-rise buildings, a request which was initially rejected, before the city had second thoughts.
Äripäev reported in 2008, that a few months before the city changed its mind, owners of the land transferred 500,000 kroons (32,000 euros) to the Jüri Vilms Foundation, which is controlled by prominent Center Party members and which publishes Kesknädal, the party's official newspaper.
Parbus told Sepp in a conversation in 2008 that the mayor - Äripäev added the name Edgar Savisaar - is frightened, and that "Taavi (Äripäev: Deputy Mayor Taavi Aas) is also feeling uncomfortable.”
Äripäev broke the story a day after the conversation took place.
Äripäev also published excerpts from the interrogation of the director of Tallinn's building oversight department, Rain Seier, who told KaPo, the Internal Security Service, that Parbus accounted for his orders by saying they were approved by the mayor or deputy mayor.
All published conversations are from the court case, where avenues of appeal are now exhausted after Parbus' and Sepp's appeal to the Supreme Court was rejected three weeks ago.
The daily also concludes from court documents that the Jüri Vilms Foundation was used to collect donations, in the form of unrepaid loans, to the party.
Sepp and Parbus were both Center Party members until the court decision became final.