According to the charges, in the fall of 2024, the Soostar altered a statement from a victim's representative in a criminal case file by drafting a new consent form for plea bargaining.

This was even despite the victim's representative indicating they did not agree to a plea deal, the Office of the Prosecutor General said. The original form indicating non-consent was removed from the file and destroyed by the prosecutor, the statement added.

The Prosecutor's Office said Soostar also manually edited a civil claim submitted by the victim's representative, adding the defendant's name.

After altering the documents, the prosecutor submitted the criminal case to Harju County Court so the proceedings could continue as a plea bargain and the civil claim could be granted, without seeking clarifications from the victim.

"Trust is the foundation of the work of the Prosecutor's Office. Forging procedural documents is not merely professional misconduct but a serious blow to the credibility of the entire justice system. For this reason, bringing this criminal case to trial is absolutely necessary," said Chief State Prosecutor Dilaila Nahkur-Tammiksaar, head of the supervisory department.

Newspaper Õhtuleht reports that in recent years, Soostar has been handling general crimes such as assaults, fraud, theft, and other so-called community crimes.

Among the many criminal cases she oversaw in 2024 was an investigation where a fraudster, using the identity of an unrelated woman, was accused of scamming small loans from businesses. There were four victims, and the damages amounted to thousands of euros.

As the goal was to resolve the case quickly in court, Soostar submitted the fraud case to Harju County Court as a plea agreement. However, the court discovered a significant discrepancy in the materials. While the paper file contained consent forms for plea bargaining from all victims, the digital file was missing one and not just missing. In the digital file, the victim's representative stated clearly in plain Estonian that they did not agree to the plea deal at all.

The court returned the case to the Prosecutor's Office, which obtained the missing consent from the victim in just one day. This led to suspicion that Soostar had forged the document.

Soostar denies the allegations and the case will now go to trial.

Throughout this time, Soostar will continue her work as a state prosecutor, as the Prosecutor's Office has no authority to remove her from office before a conviction. She can only leave the position voluntarily.

In the past 15 years, five prosecutors have been suspected of a crime, charges have been filed against four, and two have been convicted.

--

Follow ERR News on Facebook and Twitter and never miss an update!