Office of the Prosecutor General demanded the highest possible fines for journalists and newspapers - 3,200 euros each. The judge agreed to one third of the amount or 1,000 euros.
According to the court ruling, the Office of the Prosecutor General is annoyed by the fact that the Eesti Ekspress article “The entire former management of Swedbank Estonia is suspected of money laundering related to a Russian oligarch” published the name of Mikhail Abyzov, a former member of the Russian government, who was allegedly related to the money laundering, and the volume of the sum of money transferred, to which the Swedbank management members might have contributed. They are suspected having participated in the laundering of more than 100 million euros in 2014-2016.
“The Prosecutor's Office cannot tolerate that the press discloses information about the pre-trial proceedings at its own discretion during the court proceedings, caring only about its own financial interests and doing it without the permission of the holder of the information,” Prosecutor Sigrid Nurm stated in her complaint to the court.
Ruling of the court: the article merely satisfied curiosity
The prosecutor's office was also irritated that Priit Perens had not been questioned as a suspect at the time the article was published, although Ekspress wrote that the businessman had already been officially declared a suspect in a money laundering crime.