In a trial resuming after a long break, Monday's hearing in a case involving former Center Party education and research minister Mailis Reps, who stands accused of embezzlement and fraud, was closed to the public and the press.

"The hearing was declared in camera ['in private'] to protect the private life of the accused," Harju County Court spokesperson Viivika Siplane told ERR. "The corresponding request was submitted by her defense counsel."

Reps' trial had been on hiatus since late last year. On December 20, at the request of the defense counsel, the first-tier court postponed hearings in the Reps case that had been scheduled for December 20 and 22 on the grounds of a certificate of incapacity for work — typically issued as sick leave — that the former minister had been issued through the end of the month.

On January 10, Reps, then pregnant, did not appear at her hearing, and at the counsel's request, the county court postponed the hearing until the end of March. At the end of March, the trial was further postponed as Reps had recently given birth to twins.

Mailis Reps, who served as minister of education and research in Jüri Ratas' first and second governments from 2016-2020, faces charges involving embezzlement and fraud.

Reps had previously also served as education minister in Siim Kallas' cabinet from 2002-2003 and again in Andrus Ansip's first cabinet from 2005-2007.

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