This means earlier county court and circuit court rulings that Kallas must partly retract her statements about EKRE MP Varro Vooglaid and the Foundation for the Protection of Family and Tradition (SAPTK).

At the same time, Vooglaid and SAPTK remain liable for bearing the bulk of the legal fees, while some aspects of Kallas' post have not been ruled as unlawful even if they were inaccurate.

On February 17, 2022, then-Prime Minister and present-day EU High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kallas made a post on social media stating that a "defender of traditions" ("Traditsioonide eest seisja") had been attacking Estonia's independence.

"We remember the demonstration they organized on Toompea, where the Estonian police were attacked. We remember the demonstration organized by Varro Vooglaid and EKRE on October 23, at Freedom Square, where they attacked Estonian doctors, scientists, and medical workers. Unfortunately, portraying the Estonian state as an enemy has become one aspect of the political rhetoric of Varro and the EKRE party that strongly supports him. The current reference that it makes no difference which flag flies on the tower is simply one part of a long story," Kallas wrote.

Vooglaid, now an MP who sits with the EKRE faction, resorted to the court to protect his rights.

On November 25, 2024, the first-tier Harju County Court decided to partly uphold the complaint of Vooglaid and the organization he heads, SAPTK, obliging Kallas to refute the claim that the Police and Border Guard Board (PPA) had been attacked at a demonstration from Vooglaid and/or SAPTK. Kallas was by the ruling also required to refute her claims on who organized the demonstration at Freedom Square in October 2021.

The county court's decision required Kallas to make a post within 10 days stating the following: "I, Kaja Kallas, published incorrect factual claims in the post made on 17.02.2022, as if the Estonian police had been attacked at the demonstration on Toompea organized by Varro Vooglaid and the Foundation for the Protection of Family and Tradition (SAPTK), and also in implying Varro Vooglaid and EKRE had organized the demonstration at Freedom Square on 23.10.2021. These claims do not correspond to the truth."

At the same time, the court did not uphold the claim regarding Kallas's statement which consisted of the assertion: "We remember the demonstration organized by Varro Vooglaid and EKRE on October 23 at Freedom Square, where they attacked Estonian doctors, scientists, and medical workers."

The court found that under the word "to attack," the average reader would understand this as a verbal attack, while the various placards brought to the demonstration and the speeches delivered there can be considered a verbal attack on Estonian doctors, scientists, and medical workers, as opposed to any other type of attack.

In addition, the court did not identify either an incorrect factual claim or an inappropriate value judgment in Kallas's statement: "On the same day when blue-and-yellow flags are flying around the world in support of the independence of Ukraine, which is the target of Russian aggression, a 'freedom fighter' and 'defender of traditions' hiding behind the blue-black-white flag attacks Estonia's independence."

In the court's assessment, while the reference was clearly made to Vooglaid, Kallas used figurative language that would not permit enough latitude to come to the conclusion that Vooglaid committed a crime against the state. At the same time, in the court's view, Kallas's value judgment cannot be considered inappropriate in the context of Vooglaid's own ambiguous statements, either.

The court also dismissed the claim for compensation for non-material damage. In the court's assessment, Vooglaid would have to tolerate even false claims made about him, since those claims did not have a degrading, humiliating, or ridiculing nature to them and therefore did not exceed the threshold of unlawfulness. In the court's view, the statements made by Kallas about Vooglaid are a part of political discourse.

The court left procedural costs to be borne 80 percent by the plaintiffs (Vooglaid and SAPTK) and 20 percent by the defendant (Kallas).

Vooglaid then appealed the dispute further with the second-tier circuit court, which at the end of September this year opted to leave the county court's decision unchanged and to dismiss the appeals of Vooglaid and SAPTK. The costs of the appeal proceedings were left jointly to be borne by Vooglaid and SAPTK.

Since the county court did not determine the monetary amount of these procedural costs, the circuit court did not do so either. The monetary amount of the procedural costs will be determined by the county court, which resolved the matter via a separate decision.

Vooglaid next appealed the circuit court's decision to the Supreme Court, which has now declined to take the case into consideration, leaving the circuit court's decision in force.

Vooglaid wrote on social media that he is not satisfied with the course of events.

"The decision of Harju County Court of 25.11.2024 enters into force, through which the spreading of slander by Kallas against me and SAPTK was indeed established, yet at the same time 30 percent of Kallas's court costs were left to SAPTK and 50 percent to me, while only 20 percent of our court costs were left to be borne by Kallas," Vooglaid noted.

"It is impossible to consider a solution of this kind as fair. At the same time, it cannot be considered surprising either, because we know how the Estonian court system operates. But there is nothing to be done," Vooglaid added.
Vooglaid said he now has to search for options in raising the funds to cover the court costs. Costs declared by Kallas's defense, from the Raidla law firm, amounted to over €15,000 in total in the first two court instances, he said.

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