Prosecutors to Lauch Appeal in Land Swap Case
State prosecutors have notified the Harju County Court that they will appeal its decision last week to acquit the politicians accused in Estonia's long-running "land swap" bribery case.
The appeal is expected to be filed within the next 15 days, uudised.err.ee reported.
In 2009, the Public Prosecutor’s Office accused former Minister of the Environment Villu Reiljan, former Land Board Director Kalev Kangur and former Agriculture Minister Ester Tuiksoo of accepting kickbacks to help a group of private real estate developers trade low-value rural land that was under nature conservation protection for high value, state-owned urban lots worth around 16 million euros.
On June 19, the court ruled that the accused had broken no laws, and ordered the state to pay court costs amounting to 1.3 million euros.
Prosecutor Laura Feldmanis said the Public Prosecutor’s Office still believes that the indictments in the case were justified and all of the accused should be found guilty as charged.
Ingrid Teesalu