Teemant was born in Illuste (now Paatsalu), Vigala Parish, in present-day Pärnu County.

After the state of martial law imposed after the revolution was lifted and his death sentence was revoked, Teemant returned to Estonia in 1908.

He served his prison sentence in Saint Petersburg, and then spent 1911–1913 in penal exile in the Arkhangelsk province in northern Russia.

In 1918, shortly after the Estonian declaration of independence, he was named Prosecutor-General of the newly formed Republic of Estonia.

Following the June 1940 Soviet invasion and occupation of Estonia and the other Baltic states, Teemant was arrested by the NKVD on 23 July.