Estonian prosecutor general: Priorities are children, economy, security

TALLINN - The priorities of the Estonian Prosecutor's Office are still children, the economy, security and international cooperation, Prosecutor General Lavly Perling said on Tuesday when giving an overview of the office's last year's activities at the parliamentary constitutional committee.

Chairman of the committee Marko Pomerants said that while at present the prosecutor general only reports to the constitutional committee, it would be better if the annual overview would be given to the whole parliament like head of the Financial Supervision Authority or chairman of the Riigikogu do.

Perling said in her presentation that a very important goal is to make proceeding digital and flexible. "In 2018, digital criminal proceeding and new technologies should become more ordinary. Other issues to be dealt with are designing the practice of dignified treatment of injured parties, effectively dealing with suspects and the accused, and wider confiscation of criminal earnings. Criminal proceeding as a whole has to become more flexible, faster but also more human-centered," Perling said.

In 2017, the Prosecutors Office updated the system of wanted criminals and adopted a work load inside the institution. The speed of criminal proceedings regarding minors is still increasing as well as the number of criminal proceedings. The number of criminal cases in which a person has been a suspect for more than two years is declining. Increasingly more criminal earnings are being confiscated.