Kotka: ISS has sent agents to the Center Party
Center Party MP and fresh deputy chairman Siret Kotka said ISS (the Internal Security Service) has placed its agents in the party. She said one was Ivor Onksion, who played a part in a recent trial involving party MPs Priit Toobal and Lauri Laasi. Both were found guilty and ejected from the Parliament.
Kotka, who was named as a deputy head of the party on Sunday, said authorities have made too many accusations against the Center Party. Speaking on ETV radio, Kotka said ISS sent an agent into the party and a search by 20 men of the party's offices followed.
“Onksion was sent to us to wave the letters at us and in principle, Onksion pressed the letters into Toobal and Laasi's hands, after which the Supreme Court ruled that Toobal is guilty,” Kotka said, pointing to the case where Onksion stole e-mails from SDE members and gave them to Toobal and Laasi. The court found all three guilty, with the latter two receiving suspended sentences for instigating unauthorized surveillance.
She said all accusations against Center Party members are unclear.
Commenting on Edgar Savisaar's words at the party congress on Sunday, where he said the party is cutting ties with the Estonian legal system, Kotka said Savisaar meant that the party will decide itself whether to eject anyone after a guilty verdict by the courts. The party had a clause in its statutes that anyone who receives a guilty verdict in a criminal case is ejected from the party automatically, but removed the clause on Sunday.
Editor: J.M. Laats