Treason trial starts at Tartu County Court

The trial of a man accused of treason and collaborating with foreign intelligence services started in Tartu on Monday.
The prosecution said Andrei Makarov began cooperating with foreign intelligence services around a decade ago.
However, the charges also include more recent specific acts, such as setting fire to a vehicle with Ukrainian license plates. The aim of this was to create confusion in the information space and sow division in Estonian society, Monday's "Aktuaalne kaamera" reported.
"In addition to this, he has recruited other individuals to gather information on NATO allied forces' military equipment. He has also secretly traveled to Lithuania to collect data on a Russian pilot who had defected, with the intent of passing this information on to Russia," said Kretel Tamm, chief prosecutor of the Southern District Prosecutor's Office.
"The clear objective of all these activities is to assist foreign intelligence services, but at the same time, they pose a threat to Estonia's security. This is why the case has been classified as treason," Tamm added.
Tamm noted that the penalty for treason could range from six to 20 years in prison, or even life imprisonment.
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Editor: Aleksander Krjukov, Helen Wright