Estonian court keeps journalist Svetlana Burtseva accused of state treason in custody

The Harju County Court has left the preventive measure for Svetlana Burtseva, accused of violating international sanctions and state treason, unchanged, Baltija portal reports. The court rejected all the motions of her lawyer Sven Sillar, including the request to replace imprisonment with electronic surveillance, to return the case to the prosecutor's office and to allow Finnish lawyer Anastasija Lukkarinen to defend her.

The court based its decision on the risk of new crimes and evasion of justice. The court ruling has not yet entered into force and may be appealed. The trial will begin on November 1.

Recall, since the beginning of March 2024, Burtseva has been in custody.

The Estonian State Prosecutor's Office claims that Burtseva knowingly violated international sanctions. According to the pre-trial investigation of the Security Police (KaPo), she was not an independent journalist, but worked in the interests of Russian propaganda, which was recognized as a crime against the state.

Svetlana Burtseva, who obtained Estonian citizenship in 1994, worked for the Russian media group Rossiya Segodnya since 2017, creating content for Estonian online publications.

According to intelligence agencies, in 2020-2023 she continued to produce media content for the Baltnews.ee portal using the pseudonym Alan Torm, and from 2019 to 2021, Burtseva studied at the master's program at Sevastopol State University, where she studied information and hybrid conflicts. After graduation, Burtseva published a book “Hybrid War for Peace” aimed at discrediting the Republic of Estonia.