Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves has stripped a retired judge of his state decoration after discovering he had "caused people to suffer" during the Soviet occupation.
Ilves announced on Feb. 14 he would retract his decision to confer an Order of the White Star 4th Class upon Justice Juri Paap.
"I am not questioning Justice Jüri Paap's services that deserve recognition as a creator of the Tallinn Circuit Court, a developer of the modern court system, and competent judge. For these reasons, I submitted the application to the Decorations Committe of the Supreme Court to give him a state decoration." said President Ilves.
However Ilves last week became aware that in 1978 and 1980, Papp had "caused people to suffer because of their nationalist or dissident activities."
"We must reconcile and forgive. Nevertheless, I base my decision on the conviction that the Republic of Estonia cannot bestow state decorations on those who have participated in the persecution of compatriots during the occupation" said President Ilves.
Paap's Soviet-era activities came to light after a former independence activist, Mart Niklus, wrote a public letter censuring the decision to award the judge a national decoration.
Niklus said that in March 1980 Paap, while serving as a Tartu court judge, placed him under arrest for 13 days for disobeying the Soviet security police service the KGB.
According to Niklus, his only crime was to travel to Moscow to meet with foreign journalists and the Soviet human rights activist Andrei Sakharov.
