In October 1979, the Supreme Court of the Estonian SSR found Imre Arakas guilty of several anti-state offenses, thefts, illegal possession of weapons and armed attacks. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison with confiscation of all property. The sentence required him to spend the first three years in prison and the remaining 12 years in a high-security correctional labor camp.

Among other charges, he was accused of attempting to leave the Soviet Union without permission, though the attempt failed when the boat's engine malfunctioned and wind and waves carried it back to shore.

Together with accomplices, he broke into a boathouse at a Tallinn lifeguard station in 1977 and stole an inflatable motor rowboat. The group also stole a boat engine from the Dünamo sports club kayak base and broke into the Tallinn Conservatory, stealing two stereo tape recorders and speakers.

In 1978, they stole a boat engine from Kalev Yacht Club marina, a leather uniform jacket and road maps from a traffic police vehicle, and tape recorders, microphones and dictionaries from Tallinn's 46th Secondary School.

The group also stole several passenger cars. Arakas purchased and possessed a pistol and revolvers and stabbed two people, seriously injuring one of them. In 1978, he entered the Estonian Television building and threatened a guard with a pistol while demanding the guard's weapon.

Attorney Sven Sillar filed a rehabilitation request with the Supreme Court in April, seeking a review of the 1979 conviction. Sillar referred to a December 2024 ruling in which the court partially rehabilitated Heiki Terras, who had participated in the same major armed robbery.

Arakas submitted a written statement saying that he had acted together with Terras for the same purpose: resisting the occupying Soviet regime.

On Friday, the Supreme Court partially granted the application (link in Estonian).

The court overturned Arakas's convictions and rehabilitated him in matters connected with what it considered acts of resistance, including the theft of boats and engines to prepare for an escape abroad, obtaining and stealing weapons, and taking equipment from a militia vehicle. According to the court, the available materials credibly demonstrated that his goal had been armed resistance against the Soviet regime.

However, the court left intact the conviction related to the theft of two umbrellas from a car. According to the ruling, there was no evidence whatsoever that stealing the umbrellas had any connection to the struggle for freedom.

The Supreme Court awarded Arakas €700 from the state to cover legal expenses.

Court denies rehabilitation request of another man

A second applicant seeking rehabilitation from the Supreme Court had been convicted in 1979 and sentenced to 12 years in a high-security correctional labor camp. In 1988, the sentence was reduced to nine years and three months.

The Supreme Court of the Estonian SSR convicted him of stabbing a person in the abdomen after being confronted about his behavior, causing extremely serious injuries. He also robbed two people of a bag of apples and 15 rubles, participated in a raid on Dünamo premises during which 13 firearms and ammunition were stolen, and later kept the weapons in his possession.

Attorney Sillar sought a review of the portion of the 1979 ruling related to the theft of firearms from the shooting range, arguing that a court ruling concerning the man's accomplices two years earlier had found their actions were motivated by resistance to the occupying authorities.

The Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court rejected the rehabilitation request, ruling that each individual's motives must be assessed separately and that participating in the same act does not automatically mean all accomplices shared a freedom-fighting objective.

While the case files of his accomplices contained clear indications of a desire to fight the Soviet regime, the court found no such evidence regarding this applicant. Instead, it concluded that he appeared to have become involved in the operation largely by chance and unexpectedly, rather than as an ideological freedom fighter.

As a result, his conviction and sentence remain in force, and he must cover his own legal expenses.

Under Estonian law, the Supreme Court may rehabilitate people convicted by courts in Estonia or elsewhere in the former Soviet Union between June 16, 1940, and August 20, 1991, if it is proven that the acts underlying their convictions were committed in the struggle for Estonia's independence or against injustices inflicted on the Estonian people.

Arakas was later convicted in Ireland and Lithuania for unrelated crimes, ERR has previously reported.

Postimees reported that the second man refused rehabilitation was Aivar Kalvik, sentenced in 1979 to 12 years and reduced to nine years and three months in 1988. The Supreme Court found Kalvik's involvement in the Dynamo shooting range robbery was coincidental and unexpected even to himself, unlike Arakas and Heiki Teras, whose case files contained clear references to a desire to fight the Soviet regime. The paper also reported that Arakas, now 67, is serving a 10-year sentence in Lithuania for the murder of MMA fighter Remigijus Morkevičius in December 2016 and the attempted murder of Gija Zabatšidze in July 2016, and previously served six years in Ireland for conspiring to murder James Gately, a well-known figure in the local criminal underworld.

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