The Tartu appeals court on Friday overturned the sentence passed by a lower level court on Jarek Pavlihhin for disclosure of state secrets but left the rest of the verdict concerning the former chief of the drug-related crimes service of the South Prefecture standing.
The Tartu Circuit Court upheld the parts of the Tartu County Court's Feb. 5 verdict that deal with embezzlement by a person in official capacity, forging of documents and use of forged documents, spokespeople for the circuit court said.
The prison term of two years meted out to Pavlihhin for these offenses in February, which includes eight months and 11 days spent by the 35-year-old behind bars before trial, remains in force. As a result Pavlihhin still has to serve one year, three months and 19 days, which the court handed to him with three years on probation.
Also the amount of the compensation levies that Pavlihhin must pay was left unchanged at 480 euros.
According to the charges, Pavlihhin drew up documents in the period from 2006-2011 for the payment of money to informers, but the investigation established that the money did not reach the person indicated in the documents.
In overturning a part of the verdict the second tier court found that the information disclosed by Pavlihhin according to the charges was not a state secret. Besides the court found that even if the information had been a state secret its disclosure was not intentional.
The trial was held behind closed doors to prevent disclosure of state secrets.