Savisaar's defense not granted more time to study case files
The Office of the Prosecutor General has turned down attorney Oliver naas' request for additional time to examine the files of the graft case against longtime Estonian Center Party leader Edgar Savisaar, who was removed from the office of the Mayor of Tallinn by court order in September 2015.
"Edgar Savisaar's defense requested that the prosecution extend the deadline for studying the materials and filing applications until September 19," spokespeople for the Office of the Prosecutor General told BNS. "Considering that the prosecution already extended the deadline by almost one month once, we deemed the lawyer's application to be unjustified. The last day on which Oliver Naas can submit applications to the prosecution is August 8."
Naas claimed that he needed more time because he had not yet been familiarized with materials removed from the dossier by the Office of the Prosecutor General as well as all of the information collected through surveillance. "As [Savisaar's] defense, I have a legitimate interest in those material and the right arising from law to examine them in the framework of pre-trial procedure," he said on Tuesday.
According to Naas, media claims that he had either already contested the admissibility of evidence collected through surveillance or decided not to do so in court were false. He explained that since he had not yet seen the evidence himself, he could not decide at this point whether to contest it or not.
Tallinn ex-mayor and longtime chairman of the Center Party Edgar Savisaar is suspected of accepting bribes and forbidden donations to his party as well as of money-laundering. Other suspects in the case include Chairman of the Tallinn City Council Kalev Kallo, prominent businessmen Hillar Teder, Vello Kunman, Aivar Tuulberg, Alexander Kofkin and Paavo Pettai as well as former top politician Villu Reiljan.
Editor: Editor: Aili Sarapik
Source: BNS