Estonian consul hasn't seen arrested security police officer - Estonian Foreign Ministry
TALLINN. Sept 7 (Interfax-BNS) -Russia has not yet given the Estonian consul an opportunity to see security police officer Eston Kohver, who remains in custody in Moscow, said Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet.
"We have asked the Russian side to give the Estonian consul in Moscow an opportunity to see Eston Kohver. The request has not been granted and we continue efforts to get it fulfilled. Everyone has the elementary right to meet with the consul," Paet told the BNS news agency on Sunday.
"The Estonian Foreign Ministry and the Estonian embassy in Moscow have turned to the Russian Foreign Ministry on several occasions and also summoned the Russian ambassador in Tallinn in order to obtain details of security police officer Eston Kohver's illegal detention and his transportation to Russia by force and at gunpoint, and to demand his return to Estonia," he said.
"We continue insisting that Eston Kohver be sent back to Estonia," Paet said, adding that the Estonian Interior Ministry, too, has been in contact with Russian colleagues on the Kohver case.
The Russian Federal Security Service's Public Relations Center said on September 5 that Kohver was detained in the Pskov region while conducting an undercover operation.
"Eston Kohver, an officer of the Tartu division of the Estonian Interior Ministry's Security Police Department, has been detained in the territory of the Russian Federation. A Taurus pistol with bullets, 5,000 euros in cash, a special recording device and materials containing an intelligence assignment were seized from Kohver," the FSB's Public Relations Center said in a statement.
Moscow's Lefortovsky Court said on September 6 that Kohver had been arrested on spying charges.
"Eston Kohver was arrested. The court hearings proceeded behind closed doors," the court's press secretary, Yulia Skotnikova, told Interfax, but did not elaborate.
A source familiar with the situation told Interfax that Kohver had been detained for two months on spying charges. If found guilty he could be sentenced to 10-20 years in jail.
