Prosecutor's Office still not releasing details of two high-profile cases
The Prosecutor's Office has still not disclosed any further information regarding two high-profile criminal cases deemed to be in the public interest, nor is it indicating who is under investigation.
On Monday, Meelis Oidsalu, a security expert and former civil servant, wrote on social media about the criminal proceedings launched against him in 2021. At that time, Oidsalu was working as an undersecretary at the Ministry of Defense.
"Even though the Government Office filed a criminal complaint against me in the fall of 2021 and the Prosecutor's Office opened a criminal case, I have not received any notification from the state that a criminal case was opened, nor have I ever been interviewed or otherwise directly informed by the Prosecutor's Office that a criminal case was opened. Nor has any suspicion been raised," Oidsalu wrote.
Isamaa party chair Urmas Reinsalu also said in an interview with ERR on Tuesday that he had not yet received any information from the Prosecutor's Office about the criminal proceedings allegedly initiated against his party, which were originally reported by Estonian news outlet Delfi. According to Delfi, Isamaa is the subject of criminal proceedings, with the Central Criminal Police investigating possible illegal funding of the party.
"Clarity is certainly important for us and we have not received any substantive answers. This situation is definitely unsettling," Reinsalu said.
The Prosecutor's Office has so far not confirmed that Isamaa is under criminal investigation.
Kauri Sinkevicius, a spokesman for the Prosecutor's Office, told ERR on Tuesday that the Prosecutor's Office had nothing to add to its previous statements
"They are in pre-trial proceedings and no suspicion has been brought against anyone," he said.
"Premature publication of information could jeopardize the objectivity of pre-trial proceedings and undermine the presumption of innocence. For this reason, both the prosecution and the investigating authorities consider at each stage of the proceedings what information can be disclosed at a given moment without unduly prejudicing the investigation or the rights of the parties to the proceedings," Sinkevicius said.
"Therefore, we do not consider it right to disclose information about a possible act or its perpetrator if we are not convinced that there are grounds for suspicion," he added.---
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Editor: Aleksander Krjukov, Michael Cole
