The trial of Edgar Savisaar had to be put on hold again yesterday afternoon when the former mayor said he was not feeling well. The judge called an ambulance that took the veteran politician to the hospital.
Savisaar taken to hospital again
11th August 2017, 12:23
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Savisaar said he would like a continuance, and that he has managed to sit through several court sessions. The ER doctor said Savisaar’s pulse was racing and his blood pressure was high, which meant he could no longer participate in the session. The judge then ended the session.
Savisaar had spent the morning reading fiction while the court heard phone calls intercepted by the internal security service. He was leafing through the eighth and final volume of Kalle Käsper’s family saga “Buridanid” (2014).
The session moved on to recordings of conversations submitted by the prosecution. The first of these was between businessman Alexander Kofkin and then mayor Savisaar from July 30, 2014. The men met in the Balalaika restaurant in Tallinn and their conversation revolved around the fact that the lawyer who had moved Savisaar’s assets was demanding payment of 7,000 francs.
Charges suggest Savisaar employed the help of Swiss solicitor Peter Kaiser to move more than €170,000 from Estonia to Switzerland in 2009. Savisaar entered into a fictional loan contract with Kaiser. The money belonging to Arsai Investments Ltd. that had ties to Savisaar moved between different firms in a way as to make it impossible to trace it back to the mayor.
Savisaar’s defender Oliver Nääs said after Tuesday’s court session that the money handed over by Kofkin was meant for Savisaar’s ex-wife Vilja Toomast. “It was not a desire to put up wiener kiosks or extend rent contracts but an attempt to help a friend who was looking at a divorce,” Nääs said. He added that the prosecution does not have a shred of evidence to suggest the sum was aimed at securing favors from the mayor.
Businessman Aivar Tuulberg and Center Party politician Kalev Kallo had also been summoned yesterday as the court had planned to hear recordings involving the two. However, the session was ended when Savisaar was taken to hospital. Savisaar was also taken to hospital straight from the courtroom in June.