Ex-Estonian PM resigns over sexual assault allegations in Malaysia

A former prime minister of Estonia has resigned from his post as the vice-president of the Estonian parliament following allegations of sexual assault while in Malaysia.

Estonian media reported yesterday that multiple cases of assault, ranging from verbal to physical, allegedly took place at a bar in a Kuala Lumpur hotel where Taavi Roivas and his 37-member trade delegation visited on Sept 21.

Roivas told Estonian portal err.ee today that he will resign following the allegations.

“I don’t really know if this is enough to resign, but I think that beyond someone getting hurt, if this is turning into such a big scandal that it affects my colleagues then to me this resignation isn’t painful. I’m doing this to spare others.

“You have to be ready to accept political responsibility also when you feel that you’ve done something that goes against the ethics of people as well as yourself,” Roivas told the portal.

He had in an earlier interview “acknowledged that something had indeed happened” but insisted that the description of the night’s events in previous Estonian media reports had been “clearly an exaggeration”.

Err.ee previously reported that Roivas had apologised “personally as well as in the name of all of the delegation” after a woman at the party said she was “aggressively” kissed by the perpetrator before he pulled up her dress and groped her.

A “delegation member” was also described to have poured a drink over a woman at the party, saying “I wanted to make you wet”.

Another woman was also pushed into a swimming pool at the bar.

The report did not specify if Roivas was personally involved in the incidents or only the members of his delegation.

Checks with the Malaysian police found no reports were lodged following the alleged incidents.

Today, he appeared to deny the severity of the assaults, saying his part in it was that he had “danced too close” to one of the women present, which had made her uncomfortable.

“And though I didn’t understand it at the time, though I thought at the time that it was a relatively innocent dance, it was too much for her,” Roivas told the portal.- Mkini