Man suspected in attacking lady on health track is former EKRE and Free member

Photo: EKRE

According Postimees' data, the man suspected in attacking a young woman on Rahumäe health track is Lauri Õun (26) who has belonged both to Free Party and EKRE. In list of the latter, he ran for Riigikogu during the last elections. 

On July 29th policemen apprehended  Lauri (26) who is suspected in attacking a lady (21) on Rahumäe health track in Tallinn on May 25th. At the moment, he is being checked at a medical institution where, within criminal procedure, his mental capacity is being clarified while committing the act.

Lauri has been linked to a similar incident before. Namely, in the May of 2013, he attempted to strangle a lady in a Tallinn library with a fabric type item. Back then, the criminal procedure was terminated doe to low public interest, and he was ordered payment of €320 into public revenues.  

To Postimees’ knowledge, the person is Lauri Õun born on August 9th 1989.

LinkedIn says he has graduated from Pärnu joint gymnasium. Two years after that, he enrolled at Tallinn School of Economics where he studied for two years. He has also studied bionics and electronics at Tallinn University of Technology.

His profession is stated to be software administrator.

«Not much of an EKRE person»

Lauri has been listed in ranks of Free Party and EKRE. Having belonged to the Free from October 15th 2014 to January 1st this year, and joined EKRE the very day he left. On August 3rd this year, he exited EKRE.

In EKRE list at Ida-Viru County, Lauri ran for Riigikogu at elections this year. Gaining only 19 votes, he was not elected.

EKRE press representative Urmas Espenberg said there is no full clarity in the party yet as to which was the county Lauri was listed at. He was also unable to specify how the man became EKRE member. «Who brought him, how he happened to be in our list, I cannot tell at the moment.»

Mr Espenberg said Lauri seemed «normal». «But, well, today that does not say much,» he commented, adding that «Õun was not too much of an EKRE person».

Lauri also acts as technical supervisor for the portal www.rahvuslasteklubi.org. «Tallinn Nationalists Club supports Estonian national independence and the restoration of Estonian national nationhood. Both goals are the easier to achieve the more educated and active people we have. It is for the increase of such people that we operate, providing manifold education to our members and other people,» reads the website.

Since December 2014, Lauri’s company is publishing the newspaper Rahvuslik Teataja. Commercial register says he is the only board member.

Last April, in the blog Rahvuslane (Nationalist), Lauri wrote on migrants. Find an excerpt of his writing:

«I have asked the foreign students that have come here and the overall reason why they came to Estonia (in the case of Europe) was that they "didn’t care". That, at least, is what 8 people have told me. One could smell they had had some domestic problems, and that’s why they went abroad and as London didn’t work Estonia was good enough. As long as to escape homeland. This is some kind of a psychological migrant fly and such as is also active in the heads of Estonians, pushing some to travel/go abroad,» he wrote.

Classmates: Lauri was otherwise

From Pärnu joint gymnasium, Lauri Õun graduated in 2009. Postimees talked to two of his classmates who asked to remain anonymous. They said Lauri was the quiet guy while at school. Somewhat of a hermit, at times.

«He was a bit otherwise and he was often teased about that,» said a classmate. «Otherwise, like a wonk. Not that he had outstanding marks, but by nature he was like that like they are depicted in American movies,» he explained.

To the Pärnu gymnasium, Lauri came for 10th grade from a small country school. That might have been the reason he was never really received. «There were some in the class who often got to him and poked fun at him, nothing physical. And as some so-called popular guys teased him, the opinion of others was affected to some degree,» admitted the classmate.

Still, Lauri came not across as withdrawn.

That Lauri tried his hand at politics, after school, was no big surprise to the classmate. «I think it is the slightly different-than-usual who fit well into Riigikogu,­» he noted. «But he did not seem to be much forward-pushing either.»

What was surprising to the classmate was Lauri being linked to two assaults to ladies. «The last time I heard of him was when he became a father, therefore I’d never have thought he might do such things.»

The other classmate said Lauri was the hermit kind while at school and didn’t hurt a fly, hence his great surprise at Lauri being suspected in crime. «He kept apart. While the others were having a break, he was going over the next class stuff,» noted the classmate, admitting Lauri was a smart kid.

Once the school was over, he never heard of Lauri again, however.