Doctors are to determine whether an 83-old Estonian man is fit to stand trial on charges of participating in Stalin-era deportations, a court said on Monday.
Vaino Pehk is accused of preparing and carrying out the deportations of civilians in Soviet-ruled Estonia in 1949, the Tartu court said.
Investigators say Pehk, a former operations officer of the MGB ESSR (Ministry of State Security of the Estonian Socialist Soviet Republic), was responsible for collecting information on 174 people, who were then deported.
He has been charged with genocide and crimes against humanity and faces from 20 years to life if found guilty.
Pehk says he did not take part in the operation.
Human rights groups says tens of thousands of Estonians were deported to harsh areas of Siberia and Kazakhstan in the 1940s. Estonian law regards the deportations as an act of "genocide". The Russian rights group Memorial has called the deportations a crime against humanity, but does not believe they constituted an act of genocide.
