Estonian econmin getting threatening phone calls after disclosure of number

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Photo: Peeter Langovits

Estonia's Minister of Economic Affairs and Communications Juhan Parts has been getting threatening phone calls after his cell phone number was made public at a Center Party protest rally earlier this week.

"Quite a lot of calls have been made a few of which I've accepted. The content of those calls is rather horrific and I don't want to make it public. That's not normal communication. From anonymous numbers utterances have come which I'm not willing to let the public know about because I assume those persons' state of mind was such that what they said cannot be taken seriously," the minister said at the government's news conference on Thursday.

Parts said he so far used to communicate with journalists directly if he had time but apparently will have to be more cautious in accepting calls from now on.

Finance Minister Jürgen Ligi slammed the disclosing of Parts' phone number at the Center Party demonstration as a nasty act. "I've stood beside Juhan in those moments when he's been threatened. It's very nasty if a party attacks a person's privacy in such a way, spreading his phone number against the backdrop of fanning hatred. It's a pity Juhan himself is reluctant to talk about it, but I see a problem in this," Ligi said.

Defense Minister Urmas Reinsalu, chairman of Pro Patria and Res Publica Union of which Parts is member, also condemned the publication of Parts' phone number at the Center Party rally.

The opposition Center Party staged a protest against the rise in electricity prices in front of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications on Monday.

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