Estonian opera to raise money for fined pensioner



TALLINN- Estonia's opera announced Thursday a charity concert to raise money to help a retired singer pay a 3,000-euro fine for accidentally slicing off a teenager's fingertip in a row over a noisy party.
"We are very disappointed with the court ruling, and we've decided to help this old opera singer to get the money the court ordered him to pay," the national opera's director, Aivar Mae, told reporters.



Voldemar Kuslap, 72, was found guilty on Wednesday by a court in Tallinn in a decision which sparked widespread criticism in Estonian media.
The pensioner was ordered to pay compensation of 50,000 kroons (3,196 euros, 3,959 dollars) -- the average annual salary in Estonia -- to the youth.
Mae said the national opera's singers would perform unpaid alongside Kuslap on May 29, and ask audience members to make a financial contribution to a special fund.
Kuslap fell foul of the law after a midnight argument last month with a group of youngsters in the apartment below his who were holding the latest in a string of loud parties.
The youngsters took legal action, claiming Kuslap had behaved aggressively and that one of them ended up with his middle finger jammed in a door after the pensioner slammed it shut.
As a result, the teenager lost a three-millimetre (0.12-inch) piece of fingertip.
"I was very emotional that night after I had returned from [the] funeral of friend," Kuslap told reporters, adding that he only learned about the fingertip after reading the press.
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Thursday, May 20th 2010
AFP
           


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