Estonian president calls to wear yellow ribbon in support of Eston Kohver

Photo: Toomas Hendrik Ilves/Facebook

Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves has called on compatriots to wear a yellow ribbon Thursday as a sign that one is thinking about Eston Kohver, the staffer of Estonia's Internal Security Service (ISS) detained and sentenced to 15 years in jail in Russia.

«Dear friends, let us support Eston Kohver and his family by wearing a yellow ribbon thinking about him tomorrow, Day of Restoration of Estonia's Independence,» Ilves said on social media on Wednesday afternoon.

A court in the Russian northwestern regional capital Pskov on Wednesday sentenced Kohver to 15 years in jail and fined him 100,000 euros (EUR 1,375). The court found Kohver's guilt to be proven in espionage, illegal border-crossing, possession of a firearm and smuggling of a firearm.

The prosecutor had sought a 16-year jail sentence for Kohver. The Estonian security official pleaded not guilty.

ISS said on Sept. 5, 2014 that a member of their staff had been deprived of his freedom on Estonian territory near the checkpoint of Luhamaa on the Estonian-Russian border and taken to Russia by unidentified individuals coming from Russia at 9 a.m. that morning. The security agent, who was performing his official functions related to the prevention of cross-border crime, was taken to Russia at gunpoint using physical force. The abduction was preceded by interference of operational radio communication and use of a smoke grenade from the direction of Russia, ISS said.