Riigikogu member Jaak Valge, who raised the flag of the Estonian SSR on the wall of the Writers’ House in Tallinn’s Old Town, won his case against the police in Harju District Court, seeking to have a misdemeanor decision overturned. The state must also reimburse Valge’s legal fees in the amount of €2,220.
Delfi writes that Supreme Court has previously explained that not every disturbance of public order must result in liability, a point now also cited by District Court.
“The disturbance was not sufficiently intense to meet the elements of a misdemeanor,” said Judge Kristjan Paluteder, who at the same time cautioned that the Estonian SSR flag may not be displayed everywhere.
“The court emphasizes that context matters,” he said, noting that in this case the raising of the flag was connected to a substantive public debate about whether a work depicting Soviet-era Estonian writer Juhan Smuul should be located in the Old Town.
The police may appeal the District Court’s decision within seven days.
Valge, who previously belonged to EKRE, first raised the Estonian SSR flag on the Writers’ House together with poet Andres Aule in 2023. At the time, police fined them €160. Later, Harju District Court overturned the fine imposed by the police.
The men raised the same flag on the Writers’ House again last July.
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