Estonian justmin: There are no talks to bring Finnish prisoners to Estonia

TALLINN - While the Estonian Ministry of Justice and Digital Affairs has had contacts with its northern neighbors and has touched on the issue of bringing Finnish prisoners to Estonia, no talks are being held on this topic, Minister of Justice and Digital Affairs Liisa-Ly Pakosta said according to the daily Postimees.

The Finnish publication Helsingin Sanomat (HS) reported that Finnish Justice Minister Leena Meri asked her subordinates to investigate whether it would be possible to rent prison places in any foreign country -- mainly referring to Estonia.

Pakosta told Postimees that everything written in Helsingin Sanomat is true and that due to NATO membership, discussions would have been possible to bring a certain number of Finnish prisoners to Estonia, but at the same time emphasized that there are no talks to place Finnish prisoners in Estonia.

"We are not currently negotiating with the Finns," the minister said.

She added that Finland has only just begun to analyze the possibilities of relocating prisoners to a neighboring country.

According to Pakosta, Estonia has proceeded from the condition that only Estonian law applies in Estonia, but this makes the issue of bringing prisoners here very complicated from a legal perspective.

"Indeed, we have also told the Finns that we need to find a solution to the empty building and the missing jobs in Tartu, but we have a lot of red lines and one of them is that everything is done according to our laws and with our people, with our jobs," the minister said.

According to Pakosta, Sweden, where there are already plans to bring prisoners to Tartu Prison, has reached the point where they have presented the plan to their parliament and now legal changes need to be made.

"The issue that awaits a decision between Estonia and Sweden is that Sweden must agree, with a 75 percent majority in the Riksdag, to essentially transfer part of its state power to the Estonian state. We are waiting for this decision first and will not look at anything else before that," Pakosta said.