Estonia’s top court partly rehabilitates Imre Arakas

Estonia’s Supreme Court has partially rehabilitated Imre Arakas, who was convicted in 1979 of offences including preparing to flee the country by boat and stealing weapons, ERR reports.

The court overturned Arakas’s convictions for acts it found were connected to resistance against Soviet rule. These included stealing boats and boat engines to prepare for an escape abroad, acquiring and robbing weapons, and taking equipment from a militia car. The court said the case materials credibly showed that his aim was armed resistance to the Soviet regime.

Arakas was sentenced in October 1979 to 15 years in prison and the confiscation of his property. He was ordered to serve the first three years in prison and the remaining 12 in a corrective labour colony under a strict regime.

The original case also concerned thefts from buildings and vehicles, car thefts, and assaults. Arakas was accused of trying to leave the country without permission, but the attempt failed when the boat’s engine broke down and wind and waves carried it back to shore. In 1978, he also entered the Estonian Television building and threatened a guard with a pistol, demanding the guard’s weapon.

The Supreme Court upheld Arakas’s conviction for stealing two umbrellas from a car, saying there was no evidence that the theft had any connection to the freedom struggle. It ordered the state to pay him 700 euros towards his legal costs.

The court also rejected a rehabilitation request from a second, unnamed person convicted in 1979 and sentenced to 12 years in a strict-regime corrective labour colony. His lawyer sought a review of the conviction related to the theft of 13 pistols and ammunition from a shooting range, arguing that the acts were motivated by resistance to the occupying power. The source article also says the man was convicted of stabbing someone who tried to reprimand him and stealing a bag containing apples and 15 roubles during an assault.

Arakas’s lawyer, Sven Sillar, filed the rehabilitation application in April, citing a December 2024 Supreme Court ruling that partially rehabilitated Heiki Terras, who had taken part with Arakas in a large-scale weapons robbery. Arakas told the court he and Terras had acted with the same aim of resisting the occupation regime.