 He was found guilty on December 16, 2003 and sentenced to 2 years of suspended imprisonment after a lengthy process delayed by ill health.Afterwards, he appealed to Latvian Supreme Court (insuccessfully) and European Court of Human Rights (the latter found complaint partly inadmissible in 2008).Tess did not consider himself guilty, claiming that he was acting in the capacity for only 2½ months and he was mainly in charge of verifying the match of the lists prepared by local administration against the Ministry lists.