The second-tier Tartu Circuit Court agreed with the ruling made by the first-tier Viru County Court on November 1 last year in which Rannikmaa was found guilty of causing physical pain to another person.

At the same time, the Circuit Court found that Rannikmaa did not cause any damage to the victim's health and well-being. Consequently, the court amended both Rannikmaa's sentence and the allocation of court fees from the first ruling.

District Prosecutor Marge Voog said: "Although the Circuit Court found that Riho Rannikmaa did not cause any damage to his student's health, the court recapitulated the experienced judo coaches' guilt in physical abuse and sentenced him to a conditional pecuniary penalty, which will not be enforced if he does not commit another intentional crime over the one-year probation period."

"The prosecution will be reviewing thoroughly today's Tartu Circuit Court ruling, and then will decide whether to submit an appeal to the Supreme Court in cassation," Voogma added.

According to the charge sheet, on September 22, 2021, Rannikmaa intentionally struck a minor in the head during a judo-sumo training session held at the Vinni sports hall in Lääne-Viru County, causing the victim physical pain and damage to their health.

In November last year, the first-tier Viru County Court sentenced Rannikmaa to a monetary fine of €2,940, plus he was ordered to pay procedural costs of €1,087.50 to the Estonian state.

The circuit court found, based on the evidence, that Rannikmaa had struck the victim on the back of the head and that contact had been made with the knuckle of a finger.

The panel concluded that the blow was not merely a trivial physical contact, since the resulting pain was a typical consequence of such a strike, from the perspective of an objective bystander.

In addition to causing pain, Rannikmaa was also charged with causing health damage. However, the circuit court found that, based on the available evidence, there was reason to doubt this claim.

"The defendant's aim was to attract the victim's attention, but there is no external indication that the blow was delivered with excessive force;" the circuit court stated.

"Not one of the witnesses testified to seeing a bruise. The human skull is not smooth, and, especially at the back of the head, different contours can be felt. It is extremely difficult to determine simply by touch, whether a bump is a normal situation, or the result of a blow," the court went on.

Since this doubt could not be removed, it was re-interpreted in favor of the defendant.

Considering the charges were proven to a significantly lesser degree, the circuit court adjusted the sentence and the allocation of court costs from what it had been in the first instance.

The court changed the penalty to its individual characteristics by leaving the sentence conditional, with a one-year probation period, considering the minimal severity of the offense.

Also, the court ruled that the state has to cover Rannikmaa's legal fees arising from the original county court proceedings, as well as his legal fees at the circuit court level.

The Tartu Circuit Court decision has not yet entered into force.

 Rannikmaa: I did not strike anyone with my fist

Rannikmaa himself told ERR in June that he had tapped a student lightly with his knuckle, to draw attention to a dangerous situation involving a jumping activity in which the next participant could have landed on the child.

He said: "I did not strike anyone with my fist. This was during training, in a situation where there was a risk that a training partner could have jumped on this girl. I nudged her, as you might knock on a door, so that she would sit down in her place, facing the direction where the activity was taking place."

"It is clear that this is a plot against me. As of now, before the decision is announced, I won't start naming the names of those behind it," Rannikmaa had said in June.

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