You're reading: Estonian official sentenced as Russian spy involved in theft of documents from defense minister

 Tallinn, September 1 (Interfax) - Herman Simm, a former high-ranking Estonian Defense Ministry official, sentenced for high treason and spying for the benefit of Russia, was involved in the theft of classified documents from former Defense Minister Margus Hanson in 2007, Prime Minister Andrus Ansip has said.

 On October 31, 2004 somebody entered Hanson’s house in Tartu and stole a briefcase with three classified documents. Unofficial reports say they were related to the defense budget and the program of arms’ procurements. The minister was forced to resign over breaches of rules of handling classified documents.

Ansip told Delfi web portal that Simm had placed the documents containing state secrets in the stolen briefcase.

“In relation to Hanson’s case we now know that the person who placed these secret documents has been locked up for a long time, the person who advised him to confess the documents had been in the briefcase that was stolen from behind the door,” the prime minister said.

“The person I was speaking about and who is behind the bars for long is Simm. He was the person who knew what Hanson had in his briefcase,” Ansip said.

“The person who stole Hanson’s briefcase was not found despite serious efforts,” he said. “The question is why they took away a briefcase even though there were much more expensive paintings on the wall or the computer or something else that was within the reach,” he said.

Herman Simm, the former head of the Defense Ministry section for the protection of state secrets, was sentenced to 12.5 years in April 2009 for spying for the benefit of Russia.