The second-tier Tallinn Circuit Court also ordered the state to reimburse the politician, Kalle Laanet, €36,548.40 in legal costs.

On May 20, the Tallinn Circuit Court overturned in full a ruling by the first-tier Harju County Court from February 9, acquitting Laanet of fraud charges brought against him.

According to the indictment, from 2022 to 2023, when Laanet was a minister and subsequently an MP, he received reimbursement for housing expenses on the basis of false information he had submitted.

Rent payments arising from a lease concluded with a related person are not eligible for reimbursement. In this case the question hinged on whether Laanet's stepson was a related person, and whether Laanet, a former justice minister, should have been aware that his stepson would have constituted a person related to him in the understanding of the Anti-Corruption Act.

Harju County Court answered both questions in the affirmative, found Laanet guilty of fraud and sentenced him to a prison term of one year and four months, in a suspended sentence.

When applying for the costs, Laanet had confirmed that the lease for the residence had not been concluded with a related person, but with a legal entity whose sole shareholder and management board member was his wife's son.

The circuit court made a distinction based on Laanet's ministerial status: On the question of whether the lease had been concluded with a related person, the circuit court agreed with the county court. However, the circuit court also found that the rules governing the reimbursement of housing expenses for the justice minister, which Laanet was at the time, differed from those applying in other cases, adding that reimbursement of the justice minister's housing expenses did not depend on whether the lease had been concluded with a related person.

Again differing from the county court, the circuit court also found Laanet's claim that he did not know his wife's child was a related person to be credible. According to the circuit court, there was no evidence contradicting Laanet's explanations of how he understood the concept of a related person.

The circuit court noted that Laanet had however not exercised sufficient due care in failing to familiarize himself with the law, but that this was not enough to convict him of fraud. Fraud requires a person to know with a high degree of certainty that they are submitting false information.

Tallinn Circuit Court ordered the state to reimburse Kalle Laanet €36,548.40 in legal costs.

As the Supreme Court declined to hear the prosecution's appeal in cassation, Kalle Laanet's acquittal entered into force.

Laanet was justice minister 2023-2024, he is also a former defense minister.

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