No identity theft reports were filed in the wake of the scandal over vote manipulation in internal elections of Estonia's Reform Party at which votes were cast in the name of elderly members of the party who actually did not participate in the vote.
No crime reports filed in connection with Reform Party voting fraud
29th July 2013, 16:35
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Since no one has turned to the police or the prosecutor's office as a victim of identity theft the investigation agencies have had no grounds to consider opening a criminal proceeding, a spokesperson for the Public Prosecutor's Office told BNS.
Leading public prosecutor Dilaila Nahkur-Tammiksaar said already after the scandal broke in May that the Penal Code does contain provisions on election-related offenses but they only pertain to general, municipal and European Parliament elections.
«Identity theft presupposes a concrete consequence, that is, damage to a person's law-protected rights or interests, which however is not apparent from the [weekly Eesti Ekspress] article. If the persons mentioned in the article feel that their rights have been infringed upon they have to turn to law enforcement agencies,» she told BNS at the end of May.
Eesti Ekspress reported at the end of May that e-votes had been cast in the Reform Party's internal elections in the name of party members without them being aware of it. The party expelled MEP Kristiina Ojuland over the voting fraud. Ojuland has denied any wrongdoing and has vowed to sue the party.