Estonia hires Pussy Riot’s lawyers to defend abducted Security Police officer

Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet stated on Wednesday that Estonia had decided to name attorneys Mark Feigin and Nikolai Polozov to defend detained Estonian citizen Eston Kohver. “Given the extremely complicated situation, we find it is necessary to guarantee the Estonian citizen the best possible legal defence,” he said, as reported by the ministry’s press department.

Paet stated that Estonia considered the detention of Kohver to be illegal and demanded his immediate return to Estonia.

Feigin and Polozov have, among others, defended members of the Russian punk band Pussy Riot. Pozolov has also represented Russia’s oppositional Left Front leader Sergei Udaltsov.

KaPo official Eston Kohver was abducted on Friday at Luhamaa, near the Estonian-Russian border, and forcibly taken to Russia; on Saturday, Moscow Lefortovo District Court confirmed that Kohver was taken into custody in connection with an espionage investigation. Kohver was represented by a public defender appointed by the Russian court.

Estonian Public Broadcasting’s correspondent said that the Lefortovo court allowed on Saturday to detain Kohver for two months. The ruling was announced at a court hearing where the lawyer appointed to Kohver in Russia, Yevgeni Aksyonov, was present. Thus Kohver is likely to have the next court hearing in two months time, Public Broadcasting said.