ICHR noticed this in connection with the decision of the European Court on Human Rights
(hereinafter - ECtHR). In October 20, 2015 ECtHR delivered the decision in the case
Vytautas Vasiliauskas against the Republic of Lithuania and ruled that KGB ‘s actions
against Lithuanian partisans do not equal with genocide. In this case ECtHR found that
Lithuania violated the European Convention on human rights as no one shall be held guilty
of any act which did not constitute a criminal offence under national law at the time when it
was committed.
ECtHR assessed the decisions of national Lithuanian Court and concluded that Mr.
Vasiliauskas was sentenced in Lithuania based upon legal provisions that were in force in
1953 neither in domestic nor international law, and prosecution of Mr. Vasiliauskas is not
justified by international law.
ECtHR stated that genocide is defined as acts committed to destroy a national, ethnical,
racial or religious group, while in Lithuania this notion includes actions against social or
political group.
Estonian legislation also contains the definition of crimes to be qualified as genocide, such
as killing a member or members of a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, a group
resisting occupation or any other social group; torturing him/her/them or causing health
damage; imposing coercive measures preventing childbirth within the group. Statute of
limitation is not applicable to these crimes.
Estonia has already witnessed cases, similar to the case of Mr. Vasiliauskas, where KGB
officials were found guilty in genocide for their actions on the territory of Estonia. Many
participants of those events have already deceased. There are no similar criminal cases in
Estonia at the moment.
3. Estonia does not adhere to the EU Framework Decision 2008/913 in part of
reconciling Art. 151 of Criminal Code of the Republic of Estonia (Incitement of
hatred) with the said Decision. This resulted in willful legislative exclusion from
criminal and administrative prosecution the acts of xenophobia, nationalism and
racism. Recently it was once again demonstrated by scandal caused by unabashed
racist statements of Mr. Reitelman, press secretary of the paramilitary organization
Kaitseliit, which were never condemned.
The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) in its report criticizes
statements of Estonian politicians, including Mr. Jürgen Ligi and Mr. Mart Helme. In
particular, the Commission supports the continuous critique from Estonian state authorities
towards the racist statements of Estonian politicians, followed by dismissal of Mr. Ligi from
the position of Minister for Finance in October 2014. However, on April 9, 2015, Mr. Ligi
was appointed as … the Minister for Education.