Estonian court rejects Italian leftist's complaint over entry ban

Photo: Sander Ilvest

The Tallinn Administrative Court announced a decision on Wednesday whereby it has refused to satisfy a complaint by Italian left-wing journalist and politician Giulietto Chiesa against an entry ban slapped on him by the Estonian Interior Ministry in December.

By a decision of the Interior Ministry from Dec. 12 last year, a temporary entry ban was imposed on Chiesa valid from Dec. 13 to Jan. 13 this year, it appears from the court's decision. On Jan. 12 Chiesa filed a complaint over the decision with the Tallinn court.

The court on Feb. 4 decided not to process the complaint, asking Chiesa to explain the aim of his complaint in a situation where the entry ban became invalid on Jan. 14.

Chiesa said in his response on Feb. 19 he was changing the complaint to seek establishing the unlawfulness of the decision of the Interior Ministry in order to be able to claim damages later.

The court on Feb. 23 decided to handle the complaint and on March 23 the Interior Ministry presented its opinion.

Chiesa, who had arrived in Estonia via Amsterdam on Dec. 15, was detained in Tallinn on the same day for violating an entry ban and was ordered to leave the country immediately.

The Italian had been declared persona non grata in Estonia the previous week. He was supposed to speak at an event of the media club Impressum on the theme "Should Europe be afraid of Russia?" on Dec. 15. The Estonian Internal Security Service has linked the media club with Russia's foreign intelligence service SVR.

Chiesa has justified Russian activity in Georgia and demanded recognition of the independence of the breakaway South Ossetia and Abkhazia. This year he has defended the annexation of Crimea, voiced support for Russian activity in eastern Ukraine and accused the Ukrainian government of killing civilians in Donbass.

Chiesa worked as Moscow correspondent for the Italian newspapers l'Unita and La Stampa for more than 20 years. He was a member of the Italian Communist Party until 1991 and sat in the European Parliament in 2004-2009. In the 2009 elections to the European Parliament he ran on the list of the Latvian left-wing alliance For Human Rights in a United Latvia but was not elected.

The Italian politician and journalist visited Estonia at Impressum's invitation in 2008 and 2011. In 2008 he presented in Tallinn his book «Zero» which claims that the U.S. administration was involved in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and defended Red Army veteran Arnold Meri who stood accused of crimes against humanity. In 2011 Chiesa presented his book "Latvian Candidate" which among other things dealt with the relocation of the Red Army soldier monument known as the Bronze Soldier.

He is a member of the pro-Kremlin organization World Without Nazism and the Russian ultraconservative organization Izborsk Club.