The first-tier Harju County Court found Tiit Kuslapuu, from Valga, guilty of intentionally desecrating the monument, which stands outside the National Opera House in central Tallinn, by inscribing in yellow paint the word "shame" in three languages, Estonian, English, and Russian, on three separate occasions in August and September 2023 and in June 2024.

Kuslapuu, who had traveled by train from Valga to commit the acts, did not deny he was behind the graffiti, but did not plead guilty to the charge of defiling the memory of the dead.

The court found that Kuslapuu had committed the desecration of a memorial erected for the deceased and the defilement of the memory of the dead, the newspaper reported, with mitigating circumstances including the defendant's advanced age and his active assistance in the investigation, meaning a suspended fine pending a year's probation period, and no prison time, while he must also pay costs of €1,740 in 12 installments.

Kuslapuu's lawyer said his client's actions had been to draw attention to what he called Päts' controversial activities in the history of the Republic of Estonia and a revision of his position in Estonian history.

Konstantin Päts (1874-1956) was President of Estonia on the eve of its occupation by the Soviet Union and the outbreak of World War Two, having served as prime minister and in other government leadership positions earlier in the interwar period and following the establishment of the independent Estonian republic, in 1920. He is closely associated with the "Era of Silence" from 1934 onward, which began with a coup Päts oversaw in preventing a takeover by the nationalist Vaps Movement. During the Soviet occupation of Estonia, he was deported to Russia, where he died in 1956.

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