Arrested in Tallinn: 48 hours, and only a judge can arrest

What an arrest in Estonia does to your plans

The immediate consequence is silence. A person detained in Tallinn cannot answer messages, take calls or move money, and those who depend on that person notice within hours. A colleague waiting at a meeting, a hotel expecting a guest, a family at home who have not heard back since the morning: each fills the silence with explanations of their own.

For a visitor, the trip is over. Flights, ferries and onward connections are lost, a car or luggage may be left in places that cannot be reached, and a phone or laptop may be taken for examination. People who came for business find that a contract, a conference or a negotiation cannot go on without them, and the explanation they give to colleagues has to be truthful and short: delayed by a legal matter, with a lawyer dealing with it.

For a resident or someone working in Estonia, the effects are wider. An employer may suspend work or end an assignment. A landlord or bank may react to the word arrest as if a decision had been made. Children, partners and dependants who rely on the detained person have to manage without a signature, a car or an income for as long as the case lasts. Make a plain list for whoever is acting at home: bills, appointments, keys, passwords, medication and anything with a date on it.

The court's decision brings further change. Release may come with conditions affecting travel and routine; detention means weeks of uncertainty. Either way, plan for weeks, not hours. Because so much in Estonia is done electronically, the practical consequences can also arrive electronically, in an email or a portal notice, and someone should be able to read and act on those messages while you cannot.

Who arrives here and with what in their hands

A relative has had a short telephone call from a station in Tallinn, or no call at all, and has only the name of a city and the word arrested. The family wants to know what happens next, who decides and how long the process can last before someone has to account for the detention.

Another reader is the person who has been detained and released, or is still waiting, who has been told that only a judge can authorise arrest and wants to understand what that means for the hours ahead. The system is unfamiliar, the language may be foreign, and the interpreter is a stranger whose quality cannot be tested.

A further reader is someone with an Italian connection to the case: a person arrested in Estonia on an Italian warrant, a person who fears one exists, or a company officer whose Estonian business is under inquiry because of events in Italy. For this reader the European Arrest Warrant changes the question from whether Estonia can hold them to whether and how they can be sent to Italy.

All of them need the same orientation: a clock is running, a judge will decide on the basis of the file, and nothing said or signed in the meantime should be careless. The sections below organise the answers around those needs, in the order in which the questions usually arise.

Papers and information worth gathering now

A lawyer can only argue from what exists on paper. Collect what you can, photograph rather than move originals and keep copies in more than one place.

• Passport or identity card and any residence or work papers, scanned in full.
• The time and place of detention as exactly as you know them, because the limit set by the law is counted from that moment.
• Every document you were given, in its original language and photographed whole. Do not rely on a spoken summary.
• The names of officers and interpreters you dealt with, and what was said to you about your rights, including whether you asked for a lawyer and when.
• Evidence of ties: employment letters, a lease, family records, business registration, proof of where you live. The judge will ask whether you would stay and answer the case.
• Digital access details that your lawyer needs to know about, such as electronic identity, accounts used for business and devices seized. Share them only with the lawyer.
• Travel papers: tickets, bookings and messages explaining why you were in Estonia.
• Any Italian paper connected to the matter, such as a summons, a warrant or a notice.
• Medical information and medicines that custody staff must know about.

Note what is missing as well. A short and honest list of gaps lets the lawyer decide what to ask for first.

Choices that cannot wait

The earliest choice is whether to speak before a lawyer is present. The investigating body will ask for an account, sometimes warmly. Speaking at once can look cooperative, but what you say is recorded, translated and compared with every later statement. Waiting for a defender may annoy the officers and prolong the day, yet it protects you from a mistranslated or incomplete statement. The choice is between speed and control, and you cannot withdraw a sentence once it is given.

The next choice is about the hearing before the judge. Because only a judge can authorise arrest, the hearing is where the case is truly decided in the short term. You can contest the prosecution's grounds, which means preparing arguments and evidence of ties in a very short time, or you can accept the process and rely on conditions later. Contesting is demanding and, if poorly prepared, can fail. Not contesting risks a longer period in custody than was necessary.

A further choice concerns the lawyer. You are entitled to one, and one can be provided, but the person provided may meet you only minutes before the hearing. Appointing your own means someone outside must find, brief and pay a lawyer in Estonia while also managing everything else. The trade is between a convenient lawyer and a prepared one.

Finally, decide who tells the outside world. Consular notification is available on request, and a family member can be informed. Name a single person to relay messages, give their contact details to the police and your lawyer, and ask everyone else to wait.

Things to avoid, and the reason for each

Most damage in these cases is done by people trying to help themselves. Avoid the following.

• Do not sign what you cannot read. A signature is taken as agreement to the text, whatever was said aloud.
• Do not talk about the case with officers, interpreters or other detainees. None of them owes you confidentiality, and any of them may be asked to repeat what you said.
• Do not discuss the facts on calls or in visits with relatives. Conversations may be monitored and relatives may be questioned later.
• Do not post or message on social media or in group chats. A sentence meant to reassure friends becomes evidence.
• Do not delete anything from phones, email or cloud accounts. Removal looks like concealment and can itself support a ground for detention.
• Do not contact a complainant or witness to settle or apologise. It can be read as interference.
• Do not assume that a digital file is simple. Electronic records mean the prosecution may already hold more than you expect.
• Do not change your account between hearings without advice. Inconsistency hurts more than silence.

Each of these keeps your options open until a defender who has seen the file can advise you.

Questions for a lawyer about the Estonian process

These are the questions people rarely think to ask, and the answers shape the days ahead.

• Has a court warrant been sought, and when will the judge hear the application?
• What grounds is the prosecution relying on, and which of them can we realistically contest?
• What will the judge read in the file, and what will I be able to see of it before the hearing?
• Will you or a colleague attend in person, and who will speak for me if the hearing is brought forward?
• How is the interpreter chosen, and can I object if the translation is poor?
• If I am released, what conditions are likely, and what happens if I cannot meet them?
• Does any Italian proceeding or warrant exist, and would it change the way we approach the hearing?
• What will happen to my phone, computer and accounts that were taken or accessed?
• What should my family say to my employer, bank and landlord?

If an answer is unclear, ask again. A defender who explains the file, the choices and the cost of each in words you can repeat to your family is showing you how the case will be conducted, and you should end every conversation knowing what comes next and who is doing it.

When the case straddles Estonia and Italy

An arrest in Tallinn can have an Italian side that was never mentioned to the arrested person's colleagues or family: a former address, a company, a bank account, an earlier investigation. Authorities exchange information faster than people assume, so telling your lawyer everything at the start avoids surprises at the hearing.

Documents are the first practical difficulty. Anything issued in Italy, such as a residence certificate, a business record, a court paper or a medical file, will probably need translating into the language of the proceedings, and some documents will need a formal certificate before a court accepts them. Ask relatives to find originals now and keep them safe, because translation and certification take longer than a hearing allows.

Estonia is ahead of most countries in handling records electronically, which helps in one respect and complicates in another. Court notices, files and decisions may travel through portals that need an electronic identity, and a family member in Italy may not be able to see what the Estonian lawyer sees. Agree early on who reads what and who reports to whom.

Defenders must speak to each other. The Estonian lawyer knows the court and the judge; an Italian lawyer knows the Italian file and can say whether an Italian measure exists. They should settle one account of the facts and divide the work. The consulate can confirm detention and pass messages, but does not defend, and post between the countries is too slow for anything urgent, so scans go at once and originals follow.

Terms you will meet in the file

A short vocabulary recurs in these cases. Knowing it makes the papers less alarming.

• Detention. The initial period during which you may be held before a court decides, counted from the moment you are detained.
• Court warrant. The judge's order authorising arrest. If it has not issued within the limit, the investigating body must release you without delay.
• Investigating body. The authority conducting the early stage of the case, which holds you during detention.
• Prosecutor's request. The application that asks the judge to authorise arrest. It sets out the grounds.
• Grounds. The reasons given, such as risk of evading proceedings or of committing new offences. They are the target of any challenge.
• The file. The documents the judge reads before deciding. Your lawyer should see it, and you may be given parts of it.
• European Arrest Warrant. A request between European countries to surrender a person for prosecution or a sentence, following a different track from an ordinary Estonian arrest.

If a word on your papers is not here, photograph it and ask. Guessing from a similar word in another language can mislead.

Keep a short glossary of your own as the papers arrive, with the word, the date on which you met it and the explanation your lawyer gave. Relatives who read the documents later, and any interpreter who is brought in, will then use the same words that you do, and nothing will be lost between languages.

How the studio acts on an Estonian arrest

Contact the studio by telephone or email using the details on this page. The Rome, Milan and Naples offices take the same calls, and conversations can be in Italian or English. Say who is detained, where, when, what papers exist and whether an Italian proceeding is involved. If you cannot say, send photographs and we will read them and explain what they are.

The studio does not replace the Estonian defender. A person detained in Tallinn needs a lawyer who can appear before the Estonian judge, and the studio works with correspondents there. Our role is to explain to the family and to the person held what is happening, to establish whether an Italian measure exists, to coordinate with the Estonian defender, to prepare documents of ties that can be translated, and to handle the Italian side of the file.

The appointment is made in writing, signed by the person concerned or, where that is impossible, by a family member on their behalf, and fees are explained before work starts. The initial conversation is about facts and priorities, not reassurance, and we say plainly what depends on the court. Send documents as clear scans, labelled by date, with a line saying what each is. We are reachable outside office hours for urgent developments, and we tell the family at each stage what has been done and what must happen next.