The trial of prominent politician Aivo Peterson and his associates has begun in Estonia

The trial of Aivo Peterson, a politician and spokesman for the Koos movement, who is accused of treason, began in Tallinn's Harju County Court on Tuesday, state broadcaster ERR reported.

According to the charge, Peterson, allegedly acting on instructions received from the Russian Federation, knowingly and in an organized manner assisted Russia and persons acting on behalf of the Russian authorities in actions against Estonia's independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity between October 2022 and March 10, 2023.

"Together with Peterson, Dmitriy Rootsy and Andrei Andronov are also on trial. According to the investigation, the defendants participated in a conscious influence activity with the aim of creating a political association in Estonia supporting Russia's foreign policy narratives and propaganda theses. By creating this association, they wanted to enable Russia to threaten Estonia's constitutional order, interfere in the country's domestic politics and influence its foreign policy," the statement said.

Peterson, Rootsi and Andronov have been detained since March 2023, when they were apprehended by the security police. Based on the evidence gathered during the proceedings, the Public Prosecutor's Office decided to charge Peterson and Rootsi with treason and Andronov with non-violent acts against the Republic of Estonia.If convicted of treason, the punishment is imprisonment of six to twenty years or life imprisonment. A conviction for non-violent acts against the Republic of Estonia by an alien is punishable by imprisonment from two to fifteen years.

Earlier, Peterson's lawyer Mati Senkel said that he considers the trial against his client to be political.

Peterson ran in the Estonian parliamentary elections, which took place on March 5, on the United Left Party list and received 3,969 votes in the northeast of the republic. This was one of the record numbers in the region, but the votes were not enough to get Peterson into parliament.