Disciplinary proceedings conducted following the vandalism incident found two courthouse employees guilty of a breach of duty due to severe negligence pursuant to Estonia's Civil Service Act, a spokesperson for the Tartu courts announced Thursday, noting that the employees in question were punished with a disciplinary 15 percent reduction in basic salary for a period of two months.

It was determined in the course of the disciplinary proceedings that the two staffers' fault lies in their failure to prevent the inappropriate activity of a non-court individual present in the courthouse under their responsibility as well as in not remedying the consequences of the individual's actions.

Taken into account in the imposition of this disciplinary penalty were factors including the the courthouse employees' previous professional behavior, the absence of doubt in their intentions, their lack of other disciplinary penalties in effect, colleagues' positive character testimonies as well as their apologies and remorse.

The actions of the individual from outside of the courts are currently subject to a police investigation.

On January 26, the day of the official opening of Tartu's year as European capital of culture, a group of three people entered an enclosed area of Tartu Courthouse after hours, where courthouse walls were defaced with symbols of war. Two of the three individuals were courthouse employees.

Daily Õhtuleht reported in more detail that the walls in various courthouse employee-accessible rooms vandalized in the incident were defaced specifically with large letter Zs, i.e. symbols of Russian aggression and war in their most blatant form.

The Ministry of the Interior has specifically described the Z symbol as a symbol "of war propaganda which [justifies] the Russian Federation-initiated war in Ukraine" and explicitly called for its use to be reported to the police.

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