Tartu court approves custody for house fire murder suspect
Tartu County court has approved the remanding in custody of a man held on suspicion of murder. Following a call to a house fire in Tartu rural municipality in the small hours of Monday morning, Rescue Board personnel found the body of a 16-year-old boy, who had perished in the blaze.
The police subsequently detained two men aged 21 and 22 as suspects in deliberately starting the fire in which the youth died. Following prosecutor Maarja-Liisa Sari's seeking custody in accordance with the Penal Code section dealing with murder, one of the men, the 21-year-old, is to be so held for up to two months, as of Tuesday, BNS reports.
The two suspects cannot at present be named, in line with Estonian law, and the victim has not been named either.
According to the prosecutor, the suspect's record and the circumstances of the criminal offense leading to the custody request reveal the individual's particular cynicism towards the well-being of others.
"The 21-year-old suspect has been punished pursuant to criminal law for violent crimes on several occasions earlier, hence we are dealing with a person who has been offered several opportunities to choose a law-abiding path, but he has not used these opportunities. This is demonstrated primarily by the fact that the criminal offense in question was committed while he was on probation," Sari said.
The other suspect has not been placed in custody pursuant to criminal law as yet. His role in the events are to be established more precisely in the course of further proceedings and investigation.
Lieut. Rain Vosman of the office for criminal investigations at the PPA's South Prefecture, stated evidence collected on site indicated that the house fire may have been started deliberately, and may have resulted from a settling of scores between the two men and the youth, based on tentative evidence received so far.
The pair were reportedly under the influence of alcohol when first detained by the PPA.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte