Former head of communications, safety dept of Estonian Railways given conditional sentence

  • 2019-02-14

TALLINN - The Harju County Court on Thursday handed a conditional sentence to Indrek Suld, former head of state-owned railway infrastructure company Estonian Railways' department of communications and safety, and Raivo Lill, member of the management board of Autsec OU.

The court found Suld guilty of an especially extensive violation of procedural restrictions, especially extensive breach of the requirements for the conducting of public procurements and acts damaging competition in public procurements, forgery of documents and inciting the use of the forged documents. Suld was handed a conditional sentence of two years, 11 months and 27 days.

The Tallinn-based court found Autsec OU guilty of committing a crime that damages competition, ordering a pecuniary punishment of 45,000 euros, and found its management board member Raivo Lill guilty of especially extensively aiding the violation of procedural restrictions as well as committing a crime that damages competition. Lill was given a conditional sentence of one year, 11 months and 27 days.

Public Prosecutor Inna Ombler told BNS that she is satisfied with the Harju County Court's ruling. "It was found in the ruling that the guilt of Indrek Suld, Raivo Lill and Autsec OU has been proven in all points of the charges against them. In addition, the courts also agreed with the proposals of the prosecutor's office regarding punishments. The court ruling has not yet entered into force, thus, the prosecutor's office is taking its time to familiarize itself with the thorough and comprehensive decision," Ombler said.

Suld's tasks at Estonian Railways included among other things the preparation of the procurement documents of public procurements, the assessment of offers and approval of contract terms. The acts he is accused of entail that simultaneously to working at Estonian Railways, he also earned material income from Autsec OU, which participated in the procurements organized by Estonian Railways and turned out to be successful with its offers on several occasions.

According to the charges, Suld's crimes were committed from the beginning of 2014 until March 2016 and concern nine public procurements concerning the automatics of railway crossings organized by Estonian Railways. The total cost of the nine procurements is over two million euros.

The Office of the Prosecutor General also accused Autsec OU of committing a crime that damages competition and its management board member Raivo Lill of especially extensively aiding the violation of procedural restrictions as well as committing a crime that damages competition.

The pre-trial procedure was carried out by the Internal Security Service (KAPO) and was led by the Office of the Prosecutor General.