The defender of the "Bronze Soldier" in Estonia was sentenced to one and a half years conditionally

In Estonia, the Kharya County Court announced the verdict against the activist of the public movement in defense of the monument to the Soviet liberator Tallinn from the Nazis "Night Watch" Yuri Zhuravlev.

According to the press secretary of the Northern District Prosecutor's Office of Estonia, Herrit Maysalu, Zhuravlev was accused of participating in April riots, in particular, of complicity in the plunder of the Westmani ARI store in the center of Tallinn.

Unlike most participants in similar processes, Zhuravlev refused simplified legal proceedings and his guilt, which would automatically reduce his punishment by one third.

While reading the final word, he stated that "the main instigators of April events are representatives of the authorities led by Andrus Ansip, who should actually be on the bench of the defendants."

According to him, the indictment was unable to present evidence of his guilt and "the process is political in nature," Interfax reports.

The prosecutor demanded to punish Zhuravlev for two years of conditional imprisonment with a one and a half -year trial period, but the court considered sufficient 1.5 years of conditional imprisonment. In addition, Zhuravlev will be obliged to pay about 9 thousand kroons for the damage caused and 6.5 thousand crowns of reimbursement of legal costs (15.6eek/1EUR).

In Estonia, on April 26-28, mass riots broke out in connection with the government’s decision to reburrow Soviet soldiers from the mass grave on the Tynismmygi hill in the city center and transferred the monument to the city warrior from the city center to a military cemetery. The Russian -speaking population of Estonia perceived these actions as mockery of the memory of the fallen. The riots were also affected by the city of Kokhtla-Yarve in the north-east of Estonia, where mostly the Russian-speaking population lives.

During the unrest, about 1,200 people were detained, about 50 people were injured. The Russian citizen Dmitry Ganin was killed.

Later, the Ministry of Finance of Estonia submitted applications for compensation for damage from 311 enterprises, damage to 274 firms was reimbursed in the amount of more than 25 million kroons (more than $ 2 million).