Attorney asks ministry to initiate oversight at Estonia's Internal Security Service

Attorney-at-law Kristjan Tuul has asked the Ministry of the Interior to initiate an oversight procedure into the Estonian Internal Security Service (ISS) over its alleged practice of obtaining the contents of email inboxes without a legal basis or court authorization.

Tuul's request was prompted in part by a court case in which Toomas Tamm, Küllike Namm and Kalev Kangur were charged with fraud. Both the district court and, later, the circuit court acquitted the defendants, while the Supreme Court largely upheld those rulings. During the investigation, the ISS obtained the contents of suspect Tamm's email inbox from ISP Telia covering the years 2015 to 2018.

The Supreme Court subsequently ruled that investigative authorities do not have the right, during criminal proceedings, to demand the contents of a suspect's email inbox from a service provider and that such access can only be granted with court authorization.

"I wish to inform you that on June 8, 2026, I submitted a request to the Ministry of the Interior to initiate an internal oversight procedure concerning the ISS (known also by its Estonian acronym KAPO — ed.) in connection with an unlawful and systematic practice revealed by final court rulings, whereby the contents of individuals' email inboxes were obtained from communications and service providers without a legal basis and without court authorization," Kristjan Tuul wrote to ERR on Friday.

According to Tuul, the issue is not limited to a specific court case but concerns suspicions that investigative authorities have been using the same practice for a long time in other proceedings as well.

Tarmo Olgo, head of the Ministry of the Interior's internal audit department, told ERR that the ministry had conducted a thorough review of the request and concluded that it could not carry out an internal oversight procedure.

"In short, the Ministry of the Interior is not the appropriate institution, nor is the minister the appropriate official, to conduct internal oversight aimed at determining the legality and scope of investigative measures carried out in specific criminal proceedings," Olgo said.

At the same time, he acknowledged that the issue raised — the extent to which the confidentiality of communications and the right to privacy may be infringed in criminal proceedings — is undoubtedly significant and concerns an important public interest.

Olgo explained in more detail why the ministry cannot initiate an internal oversight procedure in this matter. "The ISS falls within the Ministry of the Interior's area of responsibility and the ministe