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Estonia Probes Sabotage After Fire at Building Used by Milrem Robotics
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Latvia has handed over to Estonia three Latvian nationals suspected of setting fire to a Tallinn building used by defense company Milrem Robotics, and a court has ordered all three detained.
This was reported by Estonian public broadcaster ERR on its official website on September 22. According to ERR, the handover took place at the end of the previous week.
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State Prosecutor Gardi Anderson told ERR that Estonia's Internal Security Service (KAPO) questioned the suspects before they were brought before Harju County Court. Based on the evidence collected so far and the questioning, the judge found their detention justified, Anderson explained.
"At present, they are suspected under the section on damaging and destroying property, but this may change during the investigation," the prosecutor stated.
Anderson added that prosecutors have spent the past month working with the Police and Border Guard Board and KAPO, ERR reported. The aim was to establish the circumstances that led to the arson and identify the suspects.
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The prosecutor emphasized that evidence gathering remains ongoing and that sabotage is one of several versions under examination, not an established finding. "We are checking all versions, including whether it was sabotage," Anderson told the broadcaster.
Milrem Robotics, majority-owned by the UAE defense group EDGE, is an Estonian manufacturer of autonomous and unmanned ground vehicles.
Its unmanned ground systems have been delivered to Ukraine for battlefield logistics, reconnaissance, and explosive ordnance tasks. In June, the company launched a production line in the Netherlands, with Dutch funding covering 100 additional vehicles for Ukraine.
The building on Betooni Street in Tallinn's Lasnamäe district caught fire over the weekend in August, ERR noted. After the incident, Prime Minister Kristen Michal stated that the state was investigating the theory that Russia was behind the arson.
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Now that the suspects are in Estonia, investigators will continue to collect and analyze evidence, Anderson indicated in comments to ERR.
The handover caps an investigation that began in August, when the fire broke out overnight into a Saturday after a local resident had reported suspicious activity near the site. No one was injured.
By August 18, Estonian authorities had identified suspects and requested their arrest, with prosecutors leading the case while the Internal Security Service and the North Prefecture examined the circumstances.
Michal warned at the time that if the arson was intended to intimidate Estonia or to end its support for Ukraine, it would not succeed.
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