ISS officials attend fraternity event under false names and get caught | News

“Unlimited drinks and snacks,” the fraternity advertised to alumni and male students ahead of its March 2 event for prospects, promising that joining a fraternity is a must to get the full university experience.

Such evenings constitute crucial opportunities for fraternities and societies, as despite the fact that Tartu’s student organizations are packed on Walpurgis Night, the former are recruiting fewer freshmen and young members each year. Times have changed, free beer has become less of a draw, and vaunted social capital is sourced elsewhere.

Kicking off at 8 p.m., the party attracted, next to Sakala members and alumni, a few dozen others, most of them young men 19-20 years of age. However, among them were two men in their early thirties, introducing themselves as Anton Meremäe and Tanel Saage as entered into Sakala’s guestbook.

Sakala alumnus Karl Kaur suggested that Meremäe and Saage did not really stand out due to their age. It happens that older students take an interest in college caps, songs and rapiers. But once the guests sat down for beer, something seemed off.

“Their behavior just kept getting more specific,” Kaur said. “They seemed very interested in our alumni, asking many questions.”

Another Sakala alumni, Priit Suviste, also said that the men seemed interested in the organization’s inner workings. “A few people understood early on that not everything was as it seemed,” Suviste said in terms of others’ accounts.

Anton Meremäe and Tanel Saage fictional characters

Things got even more confusing when the guests were asked to say a few words about themselves.

“They seemed like fish out of water, did not appear as students,” Kaur recalled. “They didn’t know what they were studying.”

However, this is where the accounts of people who spoke to ERR start to diverge.

Some suggest Meremäe and Saage introduced themselves as IT students, while others say they claimed to be studying law. Talking about information technology studies, the men were said to have mentioned a long discontinued curriculum. Others say they claimed to have enrolled in a course another member of which saw them for the first time at the Sakala event.

Memories get hazier from there as the evening progresses, while several people seem to agree that the heroes of the story leave early and without saying goodbye. “That is when speculation started as to what had just taken place,” Karl Kaur said, more so as Anton Meremäe and Tanel Saage do not exist.

However, a years-old video of a graduation ceremony can be found online, where both guests were awarded a master’s degree in law. The names announced in the video are different, but the men are undoubtedly the same. Today, they both work for the Internal Security Service (ISS).

ERR is aware of the men’s identities but will not be publishing their names or pictures so as not to inadvertently jeopardize other investigations. We will continue to use the men’s chosen aliases for the purposes of this story.

Criminal proceedings involving Sakala underway at the same time

The strange visit would likely have been forgotten had the detention of businessman Parvel Pruunsild and Tartu Deputy Mayor Priit Humal not made nationwide headlines two months later.

The case, which has now reached court, concerns the fraternity’s long-time wish to acquire the former Estonian National Museum property on Kuperjanovi tänav.

According to the charges, Pruunsild put pressure on Humal for Tartu to abandon its pre-emptive right to acquire the property.

Humal and active Sakala alumnus Pruunsild went to school together. The Prosecutor’s Office claims Pruunsild sponsored Humal’s campaign, wielding enough political clout as a major sponsor of the Isamaa party. The charges also hold that Pruunsild, who is a stakeholder in Bigbank, helped Humal’s next of kin to secure a loan.

In summary, Priit Humal is accused of violating procedural restrictions and Parvel Pruunsild of aiding and abetting. Both men maintain they’ve done nothing illegal.

Pruunsild’s counsel: Evidence points to illegal surveillance

Talk of the ISS agents’ night out soon reached Parvel Pruunsild. The businessman’s defender Paul Keres broached the subject during the case’s preliminary hearing in early June, describing what took place at the Sakala event as illegal surveillance.

“The evidence shows that two ISS officials attended a Sakala guest evening, posing under false names; in other words, acting as police officers, with the likely purpose of collecting information for the Parvel Pruunsild criminal investigation,” Keres told ERR.

The attorney agrees that use of police agents is hardly extraordinary.

“The problem in this case is that they did it following their own initiative and without authorization, in other words, illegally,” Keres said, pointing to the fact that the statement of charges makes no mention of the visit or any associated documents.

ISS: Our people were simply out having a good time

But the defense team’s theory rests on the men known as Meremäe and Saage having been out on duty, which the ISS’ Head of Bureau Harrys Puusepp rejected.

“They went there as civilians,” Puusepp said. “They saw the ad and decided to check it out. They spent some time there and then left.”

Puusepp also said that one of the men was a student at the time, even though he could not recall the specialty.

He couldn’t say what the men claimed they were studying or what they talked about with other guests. Puusepp does not see their use of false names as out of the ordinary.

“Waiting for an event that requires you to write your name in a notebook, our operatives are in the habit of not putting down their real names unless they know how their personal information is going to be used,” Puusepp said, adding, “Because they were there on their time off, the aim was not to associate it with work.”

Operatives allowed to attend the party because Pruunsild was elsewhere

According to Paul Keres, the ISS’ explanation cannot be taken seriously. He emphasized that because the entire case has to do with Sakala’s desire to acquire the building on Kuperjanovi tänav, the fraternity is part of proceedings.

“One of the ISS officials in question is also involved with the Parvel Pruunsild investigation,” Keres emphasized.

Harrys Puusepp admitted that the official who posed as Tanel Saage is indeed involved, but said this has no bearing on the matter.

“Waiting for the fraternity’s open event has absolutely nothing to do with the criminal case,” Puusepp said. “There was no evidence to be had there. No one was after evidence, and it was a purely private affair.”

Puusepp also said that the men asked their superior before attending the Sakala event whether it might cause problems and were told no. “Because we knew of no one there whose presence would have caused problems.”

The ISS knew for a fact that Parvel Pruunsild was elsewhere. “So there was no problem,” Puusepp said again. “The fraternity was not under investigation. There was no connection.”

Prosecutor General: ISS not put in a good light

But Keres sees the visit as having a role in his defense strategy. “Because illegal procedural acts can affect the legality of other acts, which might in turn affect what kind of evidence can be used against my client,” the attorney explained. He did not elaborate on how he plans to tie the officials’ night out to the prosecution’s evidence.

Following the June preliminary hearing, District Prosecutor Gerd Raudsepp told Delfi News that he will review Keres’ suspicions, noting that defense counsels looking to have surveillance-based evidence thrown out is hardly singular.

The matter was raised by Isamaa politician Helir-Valdor Seeder at the June 11 Riigikogu Constitutional Committee and Legal Affairs Committee joint sitting, which Prosecutor General Andres Parmas also attended.

Parmas (who is an alumnus of the Rotalia fraternity) said that the matter was brought to his attention by Sakala members, while his understanding at the time was that it concerned an incident from long ago. Parmas only later realized that the events in question had taken place recently.

Parmas told the committees that efforts to tie the men’s visit to the Pruunsild case were arbitrary, and that no illegal surveillance took place there.

“But the fact that ISS officials were present at a Sakala event and got caught is not to the agency’s credit,” Parmas noted. The prosecutor general added that he had contacted ISS and asked for a meeting at the time the parliamentary committees agreed.

Prosecutor’s Office: No illegal surveillance

Kairi Küngas, head of public relations for the Prosecutor’s Office, said that the ISS officials have provided their explanations.

“There was no illegal surveillance as far as the Prosecutor’s Office is concerned, while we do not wish to go into the details of these conversations as both persons have been summoned as witnesses,” Küngas wrote in a comment.

“Before one gives statements in court, situations where others provide explanations and assessments that might affect the witness’ statement need to be avoided.”

Küngas added that because the incident did not amount to illegal surveillance, the prosecution finds it has no bearing on the trial about to begin.

Sakala fraternity

Body! Sakala, an academic men’s organization, was founded on November 14, 1909, according to the traditions prevalent in Tartu at that time. Sakala has a blue-violet-white flag.

Sakala has over 500 members, with nearly 400 in Estonia and about 150 in overseas chapters in the United States, Canada, Australia and Sweden. Sakala unites novices, active members and alumni from various fields. Notable members of the Korp! Sakala include Parvel Pruunsild, Riho Terras, Hendrik Johannes Terras, Margus Tsahkna, Peeter Tali, Tiit Aleksejev, Ando Kiviberg, Peeter Espak, Tarmo Kulmar and others.

The principles of Korp! Sakala are nationalism, populism, physical training and health, self-education and the motto “One for all, all for one.” The main principles are summarized as: natio, democratia, fraternitas.

Sakala’s fraternity house in Tartu, located at Veski 69, was completed in 1911. The three-story Art Nouveau stone building was designed by renowned Finnish architects Armas Lindgren and Wivi Lönn, commissioned by Korp! Sakala. In 2013, Sakala also acquired a fraternity house in Tallinn, located at Roosikrantsi 3.

—

Follow ERR News on Facebook and Twitter and never miss an update!