Andres Lember, a Propastop co-founder, gave evidence to the court on Wednesday

The officers had allegedly undertaken surveillance during a guest evening at a  korp! Sakala event in Tartu in March this year.

Lember testified that the officers, who provided the given names of Tanel Saage and Anton Meremäe, fit the profile of security personnel.

After becoming suspicious about their presence at the event, Lember verified their identities with an ISS contact, Jaanus Kann, who acknowledged that the officers were from that organization – known in Estonian by the acronym Kapo.

Kann said the officers were monitoring a specific individual in relation to an investigation, adding that since the individual did not attend the event after all, the operatives left it early on.

The ISS had previously stated the officers were there in a personal capacity, and not for work purposes.

ISS direct Harrys Puusepp later said that the officers attended out of their own personal motivations and in their own free time.

Puusepp said: "The desire was that since they were there in their free time, it shouldn't be associated with their workplace,"

He added that one of the officers was a student but said he could not recall their field of study.

Puusepp also justified the use of pseudonyms, as a standard practice for ISS operatives in order protect their privacy, and did not relate to links to their workplace.

"When you attend an event in which you have to enter your name in a notebook, our employees have the practice that, they won't put their real name down, in cases where it is unclear how that personal data will be handled," Puusepp explained.

The ISS investigation was reportedly related to an ongoing real estate corruption case in Tartu.

--

Follow ERR News on Facebook and Twitter and never miss an update!