On Thursday, the 18th of May, Latvian State Police “visited” Ogre History and Art Museum, as confirmed by Ogre Country municipality’s Communication Office’s acting manager Nikolajs Sapožņikovs.
He said police had arrived at the museum and opened the doors to the office of the museum director that was previously sealed on the 14th of April.
The municipal council had previously turned to the police with a request. This is why the police arrived and reopened the doors to the office with vice-chairman of the municipal council Dana Bārbale present as a witness. This was done in order to perform investigative activities there, according to Sapožņikovs. According to information from LETA, the museum’s archive workers was not allowed to participate in the opening of the door.
The agency also reports that on Thursday
police had visited the home of the museum’s former director Evija Smiltniece. All personal computers were confiscated.
On Thursday Ogre municipality’s CEO Pēteris Špakovskis issued the order that permits the presence of only the persons listed in the order and law enforcers in the office in question.
On the 17th of April, shortly before an extraordinary meeting of Ogre County Council, during which it was planned to decide on the dismissal of Ogre History and Art Museum director Smiltniece for the duration of the investigation, she submitted her resignation. Špakovskis also suspended Smiltniece’s husband Arno Smiltnieks from his post of the museum’s chief history specialist for a period of three months.
As previously reported, the conflict between the museum’s management and Orge County Council started in the beginning of 2023, after workers of the museum objected to the idea from Mayor of Ogre Egils Helmanis to put on display the porcelain collection owned by Russian oligarch Petr Aven in the museum.
Latvian PM Krišjānis Kariņš finds this situation “unacceptable”. He invited Sprindžuks to review this case to the core. The situation in Ogre is confusing and unacceptable, and the minister of regional development should become involved and review the situation to the full extent, said the PM.
Sprindžuks asked the municipality to provide explanations about this conflict and what the municipality has done to resolve it. Explanations provided by the municipality are currently being reviewed by the Ministry of Environment Protection and Regional Development.
The ombudsman, on the other hand, concluded that the decision by Ogre municipality to prohibit a rally of Ogre county’s civil cooperation and development association in February raises concerns about the way the municipal administration limits the local residents’ freedom to gather.
Also read: Protest participants: Ogre’s mayor is no Lāčplēsis