Court orders man found guilty of desecrating national anthem to pay €15,000

A man found guilty of desecrating the Estonian national anthem in a 2022 video has been ordered to pay over €15,000 in fines, costs and fees.
The prosecution considers the case as precedent-setting, since up to now, penalties under the relevant section of current law had only applied in cases of the Estonian national flag.
The first-tier Harju County Court on Tuesday found the defendant, Jüri Kivit (pictured) guilty of desecrating the Estonian anthem in a YouTube video.
Prosecutor Toomas Tomberg said, while the hearing was in progress in March: "The Estonian anthem that Jüri Kivit uploaded to his YouTube channel does not contain a single positive evaluation of Estonia.
"Kivit's handling of the words, order, and visuals of the Republic of Estonia's anthem, as well as the layout he utilized, is wholly mocking, demeaning, and offensive to both the Estonian Republic and to Estonian statehood in general," Toomberg went on.
"Kivit did everything in his post to leave as negative an impression of Estonia as possible. As someone active in the advertising field, he understands this very well. That was Kivit's goal," he added.
The prosecution had reportedly initially sought a six-month prison sentence.
Kivit himself has said that the court process surpasses even what he called the absurdity of the trial around a decade ago of writer Kaur Kender, charged with producing child pornography in a piece of written work, and ultimately fully acquitted.
Toomberg said that while Kivit claims that his work is multi-layered and "only primitive people can see just the surface layer," it is not really the case that it is that nuanced.
"In my opinion, from the perspective of the so-called average person, it is not possible to come to a different conclusion," the prosecutor concluded.
Anu Toomemägi-Kivistik, defense counsel for Jüri Kivit, requested the termination of the criminal case at the pre-trial investigation stage, arguing that the actions attributed to her client do not fall under the relevant section of the Penal Code.
One cannot be convicted of a crime if the law does not consider it as such, she argued, adding that the symbols of the Estonian state are the flag and coat of arms, but that the national anthem is not a symbol.
Criminal proceedings against Kivit were initiated in October 2022 under §245 of the Penal Code, which deals with the desecration of the official symbols of the Republic of Estonia, after he posted a music video on social media to the melody of the Estonian anthem titled "Mu riik on hulluks läinud" "("My country has gone crazy"), based on the national anthem's melody.
The prosecution argued that Kivit mocked and belittled the official symbol of the Estonian Republic, deserving a six-month prison sentence for his actions.
The court ruled that Kivit, 55, be fined under §245(1) of the Penal Code, to the amount of €2,500, as reported by the court's press officer, and payable over 12 monthly installments of €208.33 each.
Added to that he must pay legal costs of €12,962.81.
Of this latter sum, €9,600 constitutes the fee for an expert witness, a semiotician.
Additionally, Kivit is liable for the fee for the defense counsel, ie. his own legal costs, of just under €1,805 plus €222 in respect of the pre-trial proceedings, plus a compulsory fine of €1,230 associated with being convicted of a second-degree offense, and a further sum of just under €106 payable to an expert witness.
The decision has yet to enter into force.
§245 (1) of the Penal Code refers to:
A person who tears down, damages, profanes or otherwise defames the Estonian flag, national coat of arms or any other official symbol of the Republic of Estonia, or defames the national anthem.
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Editor: Mait Ots, Andrew Whyte