As the trial took place behind closed doors, more details, such as the sentence, cannot be made public, a spokeswoman for the Harju County Court told ERR, but according to local media, Hantson was sentenced to six and a half years in prison. Hantson has been in custody since December, when he was detained by Estonia's Internal Security Service (Kapo) on suspicion of espionage. In 2015, he founded a non-governmental organization that provided aid to the Russian-backed Donbas region of Ukraine and organized commemorations of the Red Army in the Baltic state. After joining the United Left Party in 2017, in 2023 he became a member of EKRE, formerly known as the Estonian Conservative People's Party, which takes a pro-Kremlin stance and advocates for the interests of the Russian minority in Estonia. Hantson also worked for the Estonian edition of Sputnik, an online news portal which is part of a group of Russian state-funded media outlets that also includes the international broadcaster RT (formerly Russia Today). Read Also: Estonia summons Russian ambassador over GPS signal disruptions (Portuguese version)