The Prosecutor’s Office is requesting that Riigikogu member Tõnis Mölder be stripped of his parliamentary immunity so a criminal investigation into accusations of bribery can go to court.
Mölder has been suspected of two offenses: requesting a bribe and agreeing to accept a bribe, and fraud committed by an official.
The Prosecutor’s Office said the evidence collected is sufficient for the proceedings to move to court.
“Since Tõnis Mölder is a member of the Riigikogu, the proceedings can continue only if the Riigikogu grants its consent. In our assessment, the evidence is sufficient for a court to independently evaluate the suspicions,” State Prosecutor Eneli Laurits said in a statement on Thursday.
MP Tõnis Mölder. Source: Ken Mürk/ERR
According to the suspicion, in November 2022 Tõnis Mölder made a proposal through the Center Party to include a €25,000 operational subsidy in the 2023 state budget for the NGO Kõo Jahiselts. Before submitting the proposal, he allegedly reached an agreement with a representative of the association that, once the subsidy was paid out, he would receive at least €10,000 for himself.
The Prosecutor’s Office also suspects that in November 2022, Mölder ordered 1,000 election campaign postcards bearing the Center Party’s symbols and submitted the invoice paid for them to the Riigikogu Chancellery for reimbursement. In his application, he confirmed that the expense was related to his work in the Riigikogu, although he knew the materials were campaign materials that are not eligible for expense compensation.
Under the Code of Criminal Procedure, the chancellor of justice must submit a proposal to the Riigikogu or return the request to the Prosecutor General within one month of receiving the request.
Mölder is an independent politician. He was a member of the Centre Party from 2008 to 2023, before joining conservative Isamaa in 2023. He left the party in 2024, after he was declared a suspect in the criminal case
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