An Estonian court has passed a sentence against Terestal, one of the creators of the Sputnik Meedia portal

A court in Harju county has found Mati-Dmitri Terestal, one of the creators of the Sputnik Meedia portal, guilty of violating international sanctions, Baltija portal reported. He was sentenced to two years and four months of suspended imprisonment with a probation period of three and a half years.

The court emphasized that ignoring international sanctions is unacceptable and deserves an unequivocal condemnation, as the state prosecutor's office reported on social media.

The court, after considering the evidence of both sides, concluded that Mati Dimitri Terestal was guilty of violating the sanctions. He was sentenced to two years and four months in prison. If he commits a new crime within the three years and six months of probation, the sentence will be carried out.

The prosecutor's office said that after the closure of the Sputnik Eesti portal on December 31, 2019, due to international sanctions, Terestal, together with his wife Elena Cherysheva, established a non-profit organization (NPO) through which they continued the activities of the Sputnik portal.

The court found that Terestal acted in the interests of Dmitry Kiselev, who is under international sanctions, and the Russian state disinformation agency MIA Rossiya Segodnya. Such activity is a violation of international sanctions and is punishable.

The court found that Terestal knowingly violated the sanctions. He knew that the Sputnik Eesti portal had been closed due to sanctions, had repeatedly discussed with his wife the violation of sanctions and covering up the traces of it, and had analyzed these violations. Thus, he was aware that the NPO was in fact continuing the activities of a publication banned in Estonia, and the use of the Sputnik brand was considered a violation of the sanctions.

After the indictment, the prosecutor's office requested that Cherysheva be arrested so that she could not continue to commit crimes or evade the investigation. The court did not grant the prosecutor's request, as a result of which Cherysheva left Estonia and is still evading the investigation. She is therefore on an international wanted list.