A former Estonian defence ministry official accused of spying for the country's Soviet-era master Moscow is set to face trial within weeks, justice authorities said Wednesday. "The case will reach court in a few weeks, in March at the latest," Gerrit Maesalu, spokesman of the state prosecutor's office, told AFP.
Herman Simm, 61, was arrested last September in a case which has proved deeply embarrassing for Estonia after suggestions that Nato secrets may have been leaked to Russia. Estonia, a Soviet-ruled republic until 1991, joined Nato and the European Union in 2004 and has rocky relations with its powerful neighbour.
After Simm's arrest, Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip said other Nato member states which may have been damaged by his alleged espionage could also press charges. Maesalu, however, said prosecutors did not have any further information about such plans by Tallinn's allies. Simm, who remains in custody, worked as a defence ministry staffer between 1995 and 2006, before being shifted into an adviser's post until March 2008.
Previously he was the police chief in this country of 1.3 million people, capping a career in law enforcement stretching back to the Soviet era. At the defence ministry, he was responsible for setting up a security system to protect sensitive state information and prepare for Nato and EU entry.
Estonian media have reported that before Simm left the ministry he had already lost his privileged access to state secrets when Nato allies warned Tallinn of possible leaks. Under Estonian law, treason carries a prison sentence of three to 15 years. The defence ministry said it was also seeking 21 million kroons (1.34 million euros, 1.72 million dollars) in damages against Simm.
"The sum was calculated by taking into account the amount the defence ministry has had to pay to change the various communication and guard systems of various institutions," spokesman Peeter Kuimet told AFP. Citing judicial sources, Estonian media have reported that Simm claims he was blackmailed by Moscow, which purportedly threatened to expose past links with the Soviet secret service, the KGB.
Unlike countries such as the former East Germany, where the Stasi secret police archives shed light on former agents and collaborators, most KGB files from Estonia were taken to Russia or destroyed before independence.
Shortly after independence, Estonia's new security police called on people with KGB ties to come forward, promising their names would not be made public. Around 1,000 people heeded that call, officials said. If Simm had admitted ties with the KGB, he may never have built a career at the ministry. The Simm case has also fuelled calls for a radical shake-up in Estonian intelligence.
Jaanus Rahumagi - head of the Estonian parliamentary intelligence committee which oversees the security service - told AFP that the force was hobbled by its multiple roles which range from counter-espionage to fighting corruption. Rahumagi said Russian intelligence-gathering was a growing risk for Estonia because it was "much more professional and diversified than a decade ago".
In April 2007, Estonian-Russian relations hit a new low as Tallinn was rocked by clashes between security forces and members of the ethnic Russian minority, which forms around a quarter of the population. Tallinn claimed Moscow stoked the unrest, and also saw its hand in accompanying cyber-attacks which disabled the online operations of Estonian institutions and businesses. Russia rejected the accusations.
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