The Harju County district court in Estonia has sentenced a Russian citizen, convicted of spying for Russia, to five years in prison and confiscated €1,300 that the man gained as profit for his crime.
The man, identified only as A.A., was captured by the Estonian Security Police on 5 May 2019. The prosecutors charged him for non-violent actions against Estonia.
His case was settled as part of a deal and on 29 August, the Harju County district court convicted him. On 11 September, he was sentenced to jail for five years, including the time served since May when he was captured.
The court also ordered the confiscation of €1,300 (USD1,432) that the convict gained as profit for his crime.
The Russians want more information
The Russian embassy in Estonia filed a request to release more information about the charges.
“After the Estonian media released reports on September 11 that an unnamed citizen of the Russian Federation had been arrested in May and then sentenced to five years in prison in August for committing ‘non-violent actions’ against Estonia, the embassy promptly requested additional information from Estonian authorities about the charges pressed against the Russian national,” the embassy posted on Facebook.
Estonia has captured at least 15 people recruited by Russia’s GRU intelligence service and its FSB security authority in recent years, the Baltic News Agency said.
Tallinn and Moscow have also swapped several convicted spies in recent years.
Cover: Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and the country’s chief of the general staff, Valery Gerasimov, at Luzhsky range, 18 September 2017. The image is illustrative, courtesy of Wikimedia.
