The Division of Case-law and Research of the Supreme Court, in cooperation with the Department of Criminal Cases of the Senate (Supreme Court), has prepared a case-law compilation on cases relating to the Criminal Law, Section 1541 (Human Trafficking) and Section 1651 (Sending a Person for Sexual Exploitation), which had been examined between 2014 and September 2023.

Taking into account that during the said time period, the Department of Criminal Cases of the Senate has adopted only 21 rulings in 17 cases regarding prosecution under aforesaid sections of the Criminal Law, the compilation also inspects rulings of first instance courts and courts of appeal and the findings expressed therein.

The compilation has three chapters. The first chapter provides an overview of the statistics on sentenced persons, as well as a list of sources that may be useful for researching this issue.

The second chapter is designed as a commentary on three sections of the Criminal Law (Sections 1541, 1542 and 1651). The chapter introduces a legal provision, followed by court findings, as well as, if necessary, commentaries given by creators of the compilation for a better understanding of court findings.

The third chapter contains three appendices, which include a list of court rulings adopted between 2020 and 2023, as well as a list of imposed sentences for violations of Sections 1541 and 1651 of the Criminal Law.

This is already the third compilation of the Supreme Court on the issue of human trafficking. In 2006, the compilation "Case-law in cases about human trafficking and sending a person for sexual exploitation" was published, which provided analysis of rulings adopted in 2005 and in the first half of 2006, while in 2014, the compilation "Case-law in criminal cases of human trafficking" was published, which included analysis of case-law of 2009–2013.

 

 

Information prepared by

Rasma Zvejniece, the Head of the Division of Communication of the Supreme Court

E-mail: rasma.zvejniece@at.gov.lv, telephone: +371 67020396, +371 286522