Dmitri Linter

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Dmitri Linter (variant spelling 'Dmitry Linter', Russian: Дмитрий Линтер) (born November 22, 1973 in Tallinn^[1]) is a Russophone political activist in Estonia. He is a leader of the Nochnoy Dozor advocacy group^[2] that opposed the relocation of the Bronze Soldier of Tallinn memorial.

In the European Parliament elections of 2004 he was a candidate of the "Russian Party in Estonia".^[3] In the parliamentary elections in Estonia in 2007, he was candidate of the Constitution Party.^[1] He was arrested by Estonian police on April 27, 2007,^[2] day after violent riots over the relocation of the monument had started, suspected as an organiser of the rioting.

1 Arrest
- 1.1 Procedure and legalities
2 References
3 External links

[edit] Arrest

On April 27, 2007, Dmitri Linter was arrested on charges of organizing mass riots.^[4] His wife, Marina Linter, has asserted the alibi that on the night of April 26 Dmitri Linter was at home "keeping multiple contacts with the press".^[5]^[6]. Marina Linter claimed that Dmitri Linter had appeared two hours after his detention in the Mustamäe hospital under an intravenous line and that after arrival of his family Linter in unconscious state was moved by police in an undisclosed location and on the next day his arrest was officially announced. She also claimed that despite all the pleas of his wife neither Linter's location nor his state of health were revealed ^[6]. On the other hand, according to representatives of the prosecutor-general’s office of Estonia, it was part of an "ordinary investigation." "The content of the interrogation and the testimony are not made public in such cases in the interests of the investigation" ^[7]

On November 16, 2007 after 7 months of imprisonment Dmitri Linter and another leader of the Night Watch, Maxim Reva were released on bail ^[8]

[edit] Procedure and legalities

This section does not cite any references or sources. (November 2007)
Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

Estonian law allows police to detain suspects for 48 hours without court order. Longer detainments can be made only with court orders, and court orders are usually issued if there's a risk that release of the suspect might compromise the investigation or lead to flight risk, provided that the evidence available at the time merits a longer investigation. The apparent discrepancy between the original arrest and the announced arrest is explainable as due to the delay between the initial, police-sanctioned arrest and the later, court-sanctioned arrest.

In compliance with laws on suspect privacy, police-sanctioned arrests are not typically announced, but they may be listed (using the arrestee's first name and age along with the charge) in public reports on police work, typically printed in some local daily newspapers. Court-sanctioned arrests may be announced if they are of media interest.

It should also be noted that alibi is not a defence against charges of organising riots, as this crime does not depend on the perpetrator's location — especially in well-networked Estonia.