Minister resigns over stolen case

TALLINN - Estonian politicians dealing with top-secret matters will probably think twice from now on before taking their work home with them, following the theft of a briefcase with classified documents from the defense minister's house last week.

At about 2 a.m. on Oct. 31, a burglar broke into Defense Minister Margus Hanson's Tartu home and stole a briefcase containing Hanson's wallet and a number of Defense Ministry documents from the living room on the first floor.

In a statement released on Nov. 8, Hanson admitted that the documents in the stolen briefcase had contained classified information. The security police then launched a criminal investigation on Nov. 9. If it transpires that Hanson was in any way culpable for the incident, the police would press charges against him, which could cost him his job, a fine and perhaps up to one year in jail. Hanson announced his resignation on Nov. 10 due to the theft.

Although the minister has refused to comment on the precise nature of the stolen documents, the local press has speculated that they were of a medium level of secrecy. The Postimees daily reported that the documents were not related to Estonia's NATO membership but to domestic defense affairs. Top-secret documents bearing an offcial red stamp can only be taken out of a government building if escorted by an armed guard.

"As a rule I do not take work information home but recently my work schedule has not allowed me to stick to this principle," said Hanson in his statement.

According to a security police spokesman, there have been a dozen cases of alleged violations of handling classified information over the last few years.

Two of these cases eventually resulted in a criminal conviction, but the Security Police assesses the general situation concerning the handling of classified documents in state institutions as satisfactory.

Hanson was reportedly asleep on the second floor of his home at the time of the theft. The police believe the same criminal behind the theft was also responsible for a number of other burglaries in that particular district of Tartu over the previous week.

According to Estonian law, a minister has to resign if criminal charges are pressed against him or her. The Security Police will decide whether to press misdemeanor or criminal charges against Hanson. While bringing medium-level secret documents home is a misdemeanor, losing them or making them public is a criminal offense.

Ex-Defense Minister and ex-Center Party member Sven Mikser, currently an MP for the independent Social-Liberal group, said that despite the rumors circulating in the Estonian media he would not become the new Defense Minister, should Hanson lose his position.

"I do not wish to become a minister in [Prime Minister] Juhan Parts' government," said Mikser.

But Mikser also said he was pleased with the Reform Party vice-chairman Andrus Ansip's confidence in his expertise in defense matters. Ansip confirmed he had contacted Mikser on Nov.8 but did not offer him the position of defense minister.

The Reform Party currently holds the position of defense minister in the current three-party coalition cabinet.

The theft of the briefcase also raises questions about the safety surrounding key public figures in Estonia. In November 1999 a burglar got into the house of the then-Minister of the Interior Juri Mois in an elite residential area of Tallinn and stole two mobile phones and several thousand kroons in cash. The minister had reportedly left the front door open.

In December 2001 an unemployed Parnu resident got into the presidential residence in Tallinn through an unlocked side entrance. The man later told police that he had met Ruutel once during Soviet times and decided to pay him a pre-Christmas visit. The man said he decided to use the postern because the security services had refused to let him in through the front door.