The court decided on Friday to not satisfy the appeals and not change the judgment passed by the first-tier Tallinn Administrative Court in June, a spokesperson for the courts said.

The ERJK last July ordered the Centre Party to pay €220,000 to the state that it had received as a forbidden donation from a company owned by businessman Paavo Pettai, who previously produced advertising for the party for many years.

The committee arrived at the conclusion that €220,000 out of a total of €250,000 transferred into the bank account of the Centre Party in 2011 was not the purchase price of the legal share of a property that changed ownership, but an illegal donation to the party.

Under Estonian law, political parties are not allowed to accept anonymous donations as well as donations from legal entities, and such donations are to be returned to the donor if possible, or otherwise paid into state coffers.

As in this case the forbidden donation was made by a legal entity that no longer exists, the money has to go to the state.

The first-tier Tallinn Administrative Court had previously left the injunction made by the ERJK in 2017 unchanged.

The decision of the circuit court can be appealed until Oct. 1.