Career
In 1978, at the age of 69, Sabbe was found near his birthplace of Paidra, Lasva Parish in southeastern Estonia by two Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti (Committee for State Security) agents posing as fishermen. When they attempted to arrest him, he leaped into the Võhandu River and either drowned accidentally or deliberately wedged himself under a submerged log. The Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti (Committee for State Security), which took photographs before and after the attempted arrest, maintained that Sabbe drowned while attempting to escape.
But some have observed that the river is narrow, sluggish and shallow at that point, an unlikely place for an accidental drowning, and that the open field on the opposite bank and the river"s lazy loops gave an elderly man no place to flee from two young, physically fit pursuers.
A stone monument to Sabbe stands in a pine grove overlooking the site of his death. lieutenant is located just west of Route 65 between Leevi and Tsolgo, almost exactly on the boundary between Põlva and Võru counties.