Former Defence Force officer Denis Metsavas may be released on parole
Harju County Court will consider in August the conditional release application for former Defence Force Major Denis Metsavas. The man was convicted in 2019 of treason and cooperation with Russian military intelligence.
Former Defence Force officer Denis Metsavas may be released on parole
Harju County Court will review in August an application seeking the early conditional release of former Defence Force Major Denis Metsavas (45). The man was convicted of treason and cooperation with Russian armed forces military intelligence.
The court hearing is scheduled for 17 August. If the court grants the application, Metsavas may be released under electronic monitoring, the court confirmed.
The Internal Security Police (KAPO) arrested Metsavas in September 2018. At that time, he worked in a senior position at the Defence Force General Staff.
In February 2019, Harju County Court found that Metsavas was guilty of treason and of passing state secrets and official information to the Russian Armed Forces General Staff Chief Intelligence Directorate (GRU). According to investigators, Metsavas's cooperation with Russian military intelligence lasted more than ten years.
In a plea agreement, the court sentenced Metsavas to 15 years and 6 months in prison. His father, Pyotr Volin, was also convicted of treason and received a six-year prison sentence.
The former officer's sentence began in September 2018. When the court considers the conditional release application, the man will have served almost eight years in prison.
It became public that the majority of the compromised information consisted of state secrets and internal documents. The activities of the two men took place primarily in Estonia and Russia. Information was transmitted both via communication channels and during direct meetings. The payment received for passing information was less than 20,000 euros in Metsavas's case.
In 2019, Metsavas spoke to the American magazine The Atlantic about how the Russians recruited him and why he passed them confidential information. While on holiday in Smolensk, he fell into what is known as a honeypot. After a night with a local woman whom he had met at a club, two men in civilian clothes were waiting for him in the morning and took him to a police station. There they showed him a video of their meeting and told him that the woman had filed a criminal complaint against him for rape.
According to Metsavas, he was told that he could be detained and faced up to 15 years in a Russian prison. Knowing the conditions of Russia's justice system, he thought only of how to get out of the situation as quickly as possible.
As he told the magazine, he was arrogant enough to believe that he could handle the situation on his own. Fearing for his Defence Force career, he did not turn to Estonian authorities.
A few months later, Metsavas met a man for the first time in 2008 who became his handler. At that time, he was asked simple questions about both his personal life and the Estonian Defence Force — according to Metsavas, not classified information. He was offered money and he accepted it: this was the first step towards becoming a Russian spy, he told the magazine.
As Metsavas's military career advanced, the handler's questions became more aggressive. They covered not only the Defence Force but also Estonia's NATO allies. Metsavas passed on information about allied forces' weapons and equipment. He was also asked about American units and operations elsewhere in the world.
Source: ERR News — https://news.err.ee/1610076310/former-edf-officer-convicted-of-treason-may-be-released-on-parole
Source: ERR News