Delfi reports that in Harju County Court on Monday, Reps' trial reached the phase of legal arguments, indicating that a verdict might be reached in the first instance by early summer.

The trial phase began with prosecutor Kadri Väling reading the 52-page indictment, which took three hours and 59 minutes.

The prosecutor requested a six-month prison sentence for embezzlement and a one-year sentence for fraud, suggesting that the lighter sentence be considered covered by the harsher one.

"The final sentence should be one year of imprisonment. However, the prosecution does not find it necessary to enforce the sentence imposed on Reps," Väling highlighted.

Thus, the prosecutor seeks to leave the sentence imposed on Reps entirely unenforced, provided she does not commit another deliberate crime during a one-year probation period.

In requesting the sentence, Väling considered factors including that Reps has no previous valid convictions, and since March 2023, following the end of her term as a member of the Riigikogu, she has been at home raising her children alone. Additionally, no further misuse of public funds has been reported since she resigned from her ministerial post.

The Prosecutor's Office supports the civil claim filed by the Ministry of Education and Research, but only for the amount specified in the indictment – €6,401. They leave the decision on any amount exceeding this to the court. The civil claim from the ministry, however, amounts to €118,000.

Paul Keres, a partner and defense attorney at law firm Levin, previously told ERR that the civil claim from the Ministry of Education cannot be fully recognized because it includes several clearly unjustified expenses. Reps' representative has also stated that the criminal case should be terminated on the grounds of expediency.

Reps told ERR that expediency would allow her to return to her professional work.

"Whether it is politics – I can't say today that I have any relevant interest, to put it politely. But it could mean the public sector, it could mean my academic work. It could also mean teaching. But I can do all these things only if I am not under trial or criminally punished," Reps explained to ERR last fall.

She was charged in November 2021 with using a ministry car and fuel card for non-work-related purposes, the use of ministry staff members for child-minding – Reps has six children – and organizing a birthday party using ministry funds and on ministry property.

The fraud charge, meaning in legal terms causing property damage to another individual in a way that gives a false impression, revolves around the use of a ministry coffee machine, which the former minister allegedly took home.

While the charges point to approximately €7,000 in public funds having been misused, the Ministry of Education subsequently filed a civil claim against Reps to the tune of €118,000 in December of 2021.

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