On Thursday, the Harju County Court announced a decision in which the defendants in the Port of Tallinn case, which lasted five and a half years, were acquitted because the crimes had expired.

Lavly Perling (Parempoolsed), who was Estonia's prosecutor general until 2019 when the criminal case finally went to court, told ERR that such an outcome is a serious point of reflection for society.

"Regardless of what happens next, we need to look at our current laws and modernize them. It's not enough to just keep talking about it; we need to actually make it happen," she noted.

The Port of Tallinn case was delayed due to the turnover of prosecutors and lay judges, as well as the busy schedules of lawyers. Replacing a lay judge required starting the case from scratch.

According to Perling, these issues could be avoided by changing the law. "If a lawyer cannot attend a hearing, is it possible to appoint a substitute defense attorney or not? Do we have to restart a hearing from scratch in 2023 if a lay judge is replaced, or can we use modern audio-video recordings to bring the new judge up to speed with the rest of the proceedings? It is crucial to have the political will to enforce a law that is as effective as possible for handling major, complex corruption cases," she stated.

Perling also emphasized the importance of how the process is managed by the prosecution. "You need to consistently keep this as a priority, whether a prosecutor is replaced or a lawyer cannot attend (a hearing). The law should allow for an immediate plan B, and institutions should manage the process so that it can proceed quickly," she noted.

Perling said it is quite natural for defenders to exploit the statute of limitations on crimes; it is the prosecution's job to ensure that such tactics do not succeed.

"This is exactly why we have an adversarial process, where the other party must always ensure that such stalling and intentional delays cannot happen. Additionally, the process must be well-managed, and if it is, then stalling is not possible. Lawyers are doing their jobs, cynically speaking, and if they feel their ethics permit it and it is acceptable within the legal system, they will do it," Perling said.

Perling mentioned that she has been advocating for years for a law that minimizes such stalling and gives society confidence that the legal system can reach a just conclusion through major proceedings.

"If this confidence does not exist, then societal disappointment arises. Currently, people read (the Port of Tallinn court decision) and cannot understand if the defendants were guilty or innocent. When I read the news, I see that no one has stated that the defendants did not commit a crime. There is the expiration, there are legal technicalities. Now we need to analyze why such a situation arises, where a person who is not well-versed in the law cannot understand these things," Perling said.

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