His 15-year sentence, imposed in 2019, is around half-way completed and he is being held at Tallinn Prison.

The second-tier Tallinn Circuit Court affirmed a ruling made in August by the Harju County Court which barred Metsavas, 46, from early release.

In its ruling the circuit court said it had not been convinced that serving only half of his sentence had done enough to prevent Metsavas from committing further crimes, despite expressions of remorse and efforts to rehabilitate himself while incarcerated.

The court said releasing a prisoner at the earliest opportunity allowed by law, after only half of a sentence has been served, requires compelling reasons to conclude that the aims of the punishment have already been achieved.

"In D. Metsavas' case, the court currently finds that no such circumstances exist," Tallinn Circuit Court spokesperson Anneli Vilu told ERR.

The ruling has not yet entered into force and can be appealed within 15 days.

In late August the first-tier Harju County Court rejected Metsavas' application for conditional early release. Tallinn Prison had submitted documents to the court in June seeking his release under electronic monitoring.

The lower court acknowledged several factors in Metsavas' favor, including that he had a stable home and supportive family, completed vocational training while in prison and worked as a librarian and instructor. He also had no unpaid claims, and had accumulated savings awaiting his release.

However, the court concluded that those circumstances on their own were not sufficient to reliably forecast that Metsavas would remain law-abiding post-release.

It noted that Metsavas had a job, home, family and supportive relatives prior to his imprisonment too, yet nevertheless chose to commit serious crimes against the integrity of the Estonian state.

The court considered his risk of reoffending to be high, taking into account the seriousness of the offense and the long period over which it was committed.

Metsavas, a former EDF major, was convicted of treason and sentenced to 15 years and six months in prison in 2019. His espionage activities on behalf of Russia's GRU military intelligence service covered a period of more than a decade, during which he passed classified and other internal information to Russian intelligence. His father, Pjotr Volin, was also found guilty of treason.

Metsavas had previously been something of a poster boy for integration, as an ethnic Russian citizen of Estonia fluent in the Estonian language and serving as an EDF officer. He had appeared on ETV panel shows on that basis.

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