Mart Maastik, a member of the Isamaa party, told ERR that the Central Criminal Police have accused him of making a prohibited donation as a private individual and of accepting a prohibited donation in his capacity as a representative of the legal entity NGO Isamaalised.

"If you've seen the film "Dead Mountaineer's Hotel," there's a character named Hinckus. He walks into the room and says, 'Imagine that, I turned myself in.' That's exactly what this whole accusation feels like," Maastik said.

Maastik was questioned by the Central Criminal Police on Wednesday.

"I told the investigator the same thing — that this NGO was founded to promote and defend the three core principles written into the preamble of the Estonian Constitution: the preservation of patriotic values such as language, culture and the nation-state. And now we're being accused of, as private individuals, putting money into this NGO and carrying out awareness efforts to promote patriotic views more broadly," Maastik said.

Maastik described the situation as schizophrenic.

"I use my own legally earned money to support an NGO, then engage with that NGO to promote patriotic values and publicize them — at the same time, as a member of that organization, I'm supposedly also accepting the donation myself. Where's the logic in that?" Maastik said.

"Our state resources are being spent on politically manufactured processes. This is like Kafka's "The Trial" playing out. It's a very dangerous trend for Estonian democracy if this continues," he added.

The Central Criminal Police began questioning suspects last week in a criminal case investigating whether prohibited donations were made to the Isamaa party.

According to the suspicion, a total of approximately €330,000 in prohibited donations was made to Isamaa, of which the party accepted €110,000.

Isamaa party members Tõnis Palts and Parvel Pruunsild confirmed last Tuesday that they had been formally suspected of making prohibited donations to the party.

The case concerns the period in 2021 when Helir-Valdor Seeder and Lavly Perling were both running for party chair. Perling and her supporters had formed an internal faction called Parempoolsed (The Right-Wingers), while Seeder's more ardent backers rallied behind the NGO Isamaalised. That NGO was actively supported by Parvel Pruunsild, who has been a member of Isamaa since October 28, 1999. Palts served as Isamaalised's executive director.

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