While the first-tier Harju County court ruling came into effect this week, it followed an appeal and the defendant, named by Eesti Ekspress (link in Estonian) as Eldesouky Mahmoud Mohamed Abou Elenin S., an Egyptian national, has already served the three months actual jail time his sentence required, and has been released on supervised probation, during which he must take part in a rehabilitation program.

The prosecutor's office had sought a three-and-a-half-year prison sentence, followed by deportation from Estonia and a five-year ban on entry.

Prosecutor: Very dangerous individual

Arika Almann described the defendant, reported to be a long-term resident of Estonia, as a very dangerous individual whose victim had been an unsuspecting person on the street, while the opinion of district judges Urmas Reinola , Sten Lind and Heili Sepp is that a longer prison sentence of three years' actual jail time would be appropriate for the crime, committed in central Tallinn in the small hours of August 22 2019.

The victim, a woman who is a foreign national, Eesti Ekspress reports, had hailed the defendant's cab at Viru väljak in central Tallinn and was heavily intoxicated at the time, while she also reported a self-rolled cigarette which the 43-year-old Eldesouky Mahmoud Mohamed Abou Elenin S. gave to her, rendered her even more incapacitated due to an unknown substance it allegedly contained.

She was sexually assaulted in the taxi at a location close to the Linnahall.

The defendant claimed the sexual activity was consensual; he was convicted partly on the basis of DNA evidence and conveyed the victim home after the attack, Eesti Ekspress reports, and he then appealed his conviction with the second-tier Tallinn Circuit Court, but the original county court decision was upheld.

He is claiming €24,000 damages in respect of legal costs incurred in the case, Eesti Ekspress reports.

Second closed-door Tallinn taxi driver rape hearing in progress

Another rape case involving a taxi driver is ongoing, behind closed doors, also at Harju County Court, and involves a 32-year-old Sudanese national charged with two offenses dating back to July last year.

The defendant, who Eesti Ekspress says claims racism is at the heart of the allegations against him and who in the past has talked to the media about alleged racism and intolerance in Estonia, says the sexual activity had been consensual.

The original Eesti Ekspress piece (in Estonian) is here.

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