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Estonian Prosecutor Charged with Forging Plea Bargain Documents
Northern District Prosecutor Eve Soostar faces official misconduct charges for allegedly forging a victim's consent form for a plea deal in the fall of 2024 and destroying the original document, an act the state's top prosecutor calls a serious blow to the justice system.
- —Northern District Prosecutor Eve Soostar has been charged with official misconduct, including forgery and the use of forged documents, by the supervisory department of the Prosecutor's Office.
- —The charges allege that in the fall of 2024, Soostar altered a victim's representative's statement in a criminal case file by creating a new consent form for plea bargaining, despite the representative's initial disagreement, and destroyed the original form.
- —Soostar is also accused of manually editing a civil claim by adding the defendant's name before submitting the case to Harju County Court for plea bargain proceedings.
- —The case came to light when Harju County Court discovered a discrepancy between digital and paper files regarding victim consent for a plea deal in a fraud investigation.
- —Soostar denies the allegations, and the case is proceeding to trial, with her continuing her duties as a state prosecutor until a conviction.
Recap
The charges against prosecutor Eve Soostar represent a direct challenge to the Estonian justice system's integrity, originating from an internal check by the Harju County Court. This case highlights the internal oversight mechanisms now forced to prosecute one of their own, while the decision to keep her employed pending trial balances due process against significant reputational damage to the state's legal authority.
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