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Äike
11-02-2010, 05:39 PM
Former Soviet Official Tried for Participation in Genocide (http://news.err.ee/2be139c5-55e4-4656-a830-0d6dc7710959)

http://ext.err.ee/imgen2.aspx?mode=25&id=2be139c5-55e4-4656-a830-0d6dc7710959
Photo: Postimees/Scanpix

Charged with partaking in genocide, former state official Väino Pehk (82) goes on trial November 3 in Tartu County Court for his alleged involvement in the Soviet deportation in March 1949.

According to Security Police investigations, Pehk provided information about 61 families selected for deportation to Siberia, reported uudised.err.ee. Moreover, Security Police data shows that Pehk himself seized three Saadjärve municipality families, or nine people of whom four were children between the ages of three and seven.

Pehk was an interpreter for the state security department of the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic. He became a high-ranking officer in the initiative to eliminate the forest brothers, the underground resistance movement to free Estonia.

If found guilty, the court could sentence Pehk from 10 years to life in prison.

The last high-profile deportation case involved Arnold Meri - cousin of former president Lennart Meri - but he died in 2009 before a verdict was reached.

The Lawspeaker
11-02-2010, 05:48 PM
It's such a shame that there is no death penalty because he definitely deserves the noose.

Osweo
11-03-2010, 01:31 AM
What on Earth motivated such men? I can understand a Bronshtein or Beria not giving a shit about slaughtering Russians and Estonians, but to do it to your own kind for an occupying power? :(

Susi
11-03-2010, 03:14 AM
Oswik... there were three types. those who implemented, those who allowed and those who suffered.

Like how Pushkin wrote:


In this our age of infamy
Man's choice is but to be
A tyrant, traitor, prisoner
No other choice has he

I think it was impossible to escape involvement.

Curtis24
11-03-2010, 03:26 AM
What on Earth motivated such men?

Money, luxury, women...

"And to think, such men once ruled a country..."(the Lives of Others)

Äike
11-03-2010, 12:15 PM
Such genocide is the reason why the Estonian population of Estonia is smaller in 2010, than in 1898. Deportation of massive amounts of Estonians was bad enough, but the fact that the majority of them were women and small children, did even more damage to the Estonian population.

Susi
11-04-2010, 05:08 AM
Money, luxury, women...

"And to think, such men once ruled a country..."(the Lives of Others)

The heel of his superior on his neck, more like.

Äike
11-04-2010, 06:00 PM
Activists Protest at Moscow Embassy over Genocide Case (http://news.err.ee/politics/9be7ce03-1179-429e-a8e0-be1b6792f580)

Members of the political group Young Guard of United Russia have held a demonstration at the Estonian embassy in Moscow against the trial of former state official Väino Pehk (82) who stands accused of genocide in Tartu County Court.

Carrying signs accusing Estonia of “rewriting history” and likening the Security Police to wartime Nazis, the small group read out a letter of demands to Estonian authorities and attempted to pass it on to embassy staff, rus.err.ee reported.

"A former KGB officer is being accused of genocide and complicity in the deportation of the civilian population. In fact, the Estonian authorities have launched another political trial against an elderly person who served his country in the postwar years. The accusation is based on archive materials that are 60 years old," read a statement by one of the activists, which was posted on the internet.

Pehk, who served as an interpreter for the state security department of the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic, was due to go on trial this week for preparing and carrying out deportations in Estonia in 1949, however he did not appear in court on Wednesday due to illness.

...

The Soviet mentality lives on among Russians, typical. Russians wish that all of us would have been deported to Siberia in the Soviet era and they could have colonized Estonia without any problems.