On April 27, having examined the cassation complaints of the defendant and defence counsels, the Department of Criminal Cases of the Supreme Court (Senate) left unchanged the decision of the Riga Regional Court, which upheld the conviction of the Riga City Vidzeme District Court of August 17, 2020 on charges of espionage. The Senate recognized the decision of the Riga Regional Court as legal and justified. Along with the decision of the Senate, the sentence of 15 years' imprisonment of the defendant comes into force. The money seized and arrested during the search (14,910 EUR, 11,948 USD and 200 CAD) was recognized and confiscated as property obtained by crime.

In the case under consideration, the Prosecutor's Office of the Riga court district brought charges against the former official of the Information Centre of the Ministry of the Interior for committing six criminal offenses, namely for espionage, as well as for circulation of pornographic materials, possession of firearms and explosives without a permit. The indictment states that the defendant had been illegally collecting and transferring information containing state secret and undisclosed information to a foreign country for a long period time. During the period from 2000 to 2006, the defendant met with representatives of the foreign intelligence service and handed over the collected information. The arrival of the information at the disposal of the Russian intelligence services posed a threat to the security of the Latvian state as stated by the Prosecutor's Office.

The Senate found that the defendant had repeated in the cassation complaint the arguments expressed in the appeal, which the appellate court had evaluated and rejected on the grounds.

The Senate recognized as unfounded the statements of the defendant and his defence counsels expressed in the cassation complaints which stated that the prohibition on getting acquainted with the materials of the operational activities has violated the defendant’s right to a fair trial. All the evidence at the disposal of the public prosecution was disclosed to the defence, thus the defendant received complete information about the collected evidence on which the accusation was based, and the accused could effectively implement his right to defence and to give his opinions on facts and legal issues.

Moreover, the appellate court had not violated the defendant's right to completion of criminal proceedings within a reasonable timeframe. The Senate found that no such request was made in the appeals. Having evaluated the specific circumstances of the case, the Senate recognizes that there was no downtime in the criminal proceedings and that the progress of the criminal proceedings took place in accordance with the scope of the criminal proceedings and the attitude of the persons involved in the process towards fulfilling their duties.

Furthermore, the Senate acknowledged that the appellate court has assessed the argument stated in the defendant's cassation complaint regarding the recognition of seized funds as criminally obtained property and has recognized as justified the conclusion of the first instance court that the cash and non-cash funds belonging to the defendant was obtained as a result of espionage.

The case has the status of a closed case.

 

Information prepared by Baiba Kataja, Press Secretary of the Supreme Court

Tel.: +371 67020396; e-mail: baiba.kataja@at.gov.lv