Six years ago, the Supreme Court acquitted Edgar Savisaar. He was ill, so he would not have been able to serve a sentence. In the Tallinn Port court case, no one was convicted. The court found that the crimes had expired.
In the European Union, there are plans to change the laws. In the future, property could be confiscated without a conviction. This would happen if the court finds that the property was obtained as a result of a crime.
Currently, in Estonia and Europe, only a small portion of criminal proceeds have been confiscated. The origin of criminal property is difficult to prove.
Andreas Kangur, head of the Ministry of Justice, explained: "If the property was obtained as a result of a crime, it should be confiscatable."
The Convention on Human Rights states that everyone is presumed innocent until proven guilty. The Estonian Constitution also stipulates this.
Kangur emphasized that confiscation does not mean that a person is a criminal. The European Court of Human Rights has found that this does not violate the principle of innocence.
Prosecutor General Alar Lehesmets said that confiscating property without a court decision is nothing new. It is already in use in many European countries.
Estonia, together with other European countries, has adopted the asset recovery directive. Other countries have already implemented it.
Kangur added that drafting the law was challenging. Some solutions were radical in Estonia.