The Harju County Court on Tuesday for the second time acquitted Alar Oppar, former adviser to the Estonian minister of agriculture, and Thorben Gronkjaer Nielsen, a Danish fish businessman, on charges accusing them of corruption offenses.
Lower level court again acquits ex-adviser to minister of agriculture
3rd September 2013, 16:13
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The first tier court in Tallinn found that the guilt of Oppar and Nielsen is not proven and they have to be acquitted as a result. Besides the court ordered the state to pay Oppar 4,130 euros as compensation of legal costs. The sum ordered to be paid to Nielsen is 3,304 euros.
Prosecutor Laura Vaik said she is continuously of the opinion that Oppar's and Nielsen's guilt in corruptive actions is proven and intends to appeal Tuesday's judgment in a circuit court.
The prosecutor had sought a six-month suspended jail sentence for Oppar and a three-month suspended jail sentence for Nielsen, with three-year probation in both cases.
The defense said the men must be acquitted.
In mid-March, the Supreme Court of Estonia revoked the acquittal of Oppar on charges that he accepted assets and favors from the Danish businessman, and returned the case to the court of the first instance for a review.
The top court's criminal chamber found that the lower level courts had rightly noted that in order to secure the right of defense the charges must be concrete, but disagreed with the main argument for acquittal according to which the charges were vague in that they did not specify which assets allegedly accepted by Oppar pertained to influence peddling and which to bribe-giving and -taking.
The regional and circuit courts' failure to state in their rulings why and how the right of defense was violated through the statement of charges not making clear which assets or favors pertained to influence peddling and which to bribe-giving and -taking constitutes in the top court's opinion a serious violation of the criminal procedural law and it therefore quashed the acquittal and returned the case to the lower level Harju regional court.
The second tier court in Tallinn upheld in April 2012 the ruling made earlier by the Harju regional court which acquitted Oppar on influence peddling charges.
The lower court's judgment in the trial of Oppar and the Danish co-defendant had been appealed by both the defense and the prosecution. While prosecutor Triin Bergman appealed the decision to have it overturned and the defendants declared guilty, Oppar's lawyer Aivar Pilv wanted the judgment changed as far as the reimbursement of legal expenses goes.
The Harju regional court found in its initial judgment in September 2011 that the guilt of Oppar and Nielsen was not proven.
In the trial that started in November 2010, the ex-adviser to Estonia's Agriculture Minister Helir-Valdor Seeder was accused of influence peddling and accepting a bribe, while the Danish businessman was accused of bribe-giving. Both pleaded not guilty.
According to the indictment, Oppar accepted assets and other favors from Nielsen, board member of the company FjordFresh Holding, promising in return to exercise unlawfully his actual and assumed influence to make sure that officials of the Ministry of Agriculture acted in the interests of the Danish businessman and his company.
According to the investigation materials, Oppar received 400,000 kroons (EUR 25,600) in interest-free loans, 531,000 kroons as advance payment for consulting services, and a job and a stake in FjordFresh Holding.
The crime episodes allegedly took place from fall 2007 to spring 2008.
(EUR 1 = EEK 15.65)