People's letters of support for Lembergs' release sent to court for a second time

The Riga Regional Court has for the second time rejected a letter from citizens asking for Aivars Lembergs to be released from detention - researching what has happened in the Lembergs case since the first instance court's ruling, discovered Neatkarīgā.

The court did not assess the merits of the two letters, but sent them back to the applicant.

The letter, signed by 709 people and sent to the Riga Regional Court on November 22 last year, reads: "Honorable Court! It will now be 9 months since you decided to keep Aivars Lembergs in custody, even though the final court decision has not entered into force. We still do not know and understand why Aivars Lembergs, who has done more good for society and for Ventspils than any politician during Latvia's independence, should have been detained. The latest polls in Latvia show that the public trusts Lembergs and would like to see him as Prime Minister. We can see that the arrest is purely a political decision. Even now, when we read in the media that Aivars Lembergs' health is deteriorating, he is still being subjected to degrading treatment, detained without any substantial, valid reason, denied any basic human rights, denied necessary medical treatment! We, the undersigned, believe that the rule of law prevails in Latvia, that the courts do not follow political orders, that judges who assess the fate and health of people remain humane and empathetic. We ask you, Honorable Court, to assess the state of health of Aivars Lembergs as soon as possible and to release him from custody. We, the undersigned, know that Aivars Lembergs will not try escaping justice, as he himself has repeatedly stated publicly. Attached are 709 signatures on 33 pages."

Judge Sandra Amola has examined the letter and responded succinctly on December 15, stating among other things: "As you are not a party to the criminal proceedings, there is no legal basis for accepting your request and it should be returned to you together with the annex."

But the first letter in support of Lembergs was sent to the President of the Supreme Court, Aigars Strupišs, already on March 4 last year - 10 days after Lembergs was arrested. It was signed by 1,557 people in Ventspils.

The letter reads: "Expressing our free will and civic position, on the basis of Sections 1 and 100 of the Republic of Latvia, we hereby send you the will of the supporters of Ventspils City Council Chairman A. Lembergs and the citizens of Ventspils for the release of Ventspils City Council Chairman A. Lembergs from detention. We consider that the detention order imposed on the Ventspils City Council Chairman Aivars Lembergs is unduly harsh and does not comply with elementary human rights standards of defense and fair trial."

This letter, with 99 pages of citizens' signatures, was forwarded by A. Strupišs to the Riga Regional Court. The letter was returned to the residents on March 17 by the judge of this court, Irīna Jansone. I. Jansone explained that, according to the law, only persons involved in criminal proceedings can submit requests to the court.

It should be recalled that in the summary judgment by which Aivars Lembergs was sent to the Riga Central Prison, no justification was given for the detention.

Only several months later, in the full judgment, it was stated that the detention was imposed because Lembergs might try to evade execution of the judgment, with hints that he had influence over certain officials in the law enforcement bodies.

A few days ago, it became known that A. Lembergs had applied to these authorities - the State Police, KNAB, SRS, State Security Service - to stop the unlawful influence on officials of the relevant authorities mentioned in the judgement. As is clear from this information, only the State Security Service (SSS) has not responded substantively to Lembergs' request for the cessation of the unlawful influence, which is why the SSS response has been appealed before the administrative court.