Zemgale District Court in Jelgava has commenced the hearing of a criminal case in which the Chief of Pauls Stradins Clinical Hospital (PSKUS) Emergency Medical Centre (NMC) Roberts Fūrmanis and several other medical workers are accused of beating some man at some event in 2014, as reported by LETA.
The publicly accessible calendar of the court indicates that among the accused in this case are Fūrmanis, Artūrs Šons, Santis Podāns, Rustams Junusovs and Valdis Skotelis. All of them are accused of intentionally causing moderate bodily harm committed by a group of persons.
Such a crime is punishable with up to five years in prison, probation, community service or a fine.
The court received the case at the end of 2020. The next hearing is scheduled for the 19th of October.
This summer Fūrmanis became the chief of PSKUS Emergency Medical Service this summer. In the past he was in charge of the Zemgale regional centre of the Emergency Medical Service. He also served as vice-president of the Latvian Medical Association (LAB). Fūrmanis has 21 years of experience working in the medical field.
When the case was submitted to court the other three of the accused worked as assistant doctors in NMPD. The forth person was a reanimatologist at the time.
The charges are for events that took place in 2014, when the accused were attending some party event in Jelgava. Alcohol was present there.
According to the prosecution, some man had arrived at the party uninvited to get his wife. A conflict then broke out between him and the accused. One of the latter, driven by anger that the man came uninvited, hit him twice on the face, as LETA was told by the prosecution office.
The man was then led outside and beaten. The victim was then shoved into a ditch. The accused then left the scene, the prosecution states.
Fūrmanis did not provide any comments about the charges against him. He only said he does not admit his guilt.
PSKUS chief physician, anaesthesiologist, reanimatologist Eva Strīķe told LETA that the hospital is aware of the ongoing trial.
Strīķe said the court has yet to review Fūrmanis’ actions of ten years ago, adding that there is no guilty verdict as of yet. Currently the hospital has controversial information about what happened in December 2014. Only the verdict of a court of justice can provide clarity as to what really happened.
At the same time, she stresses that PSKUS maintain a stance with Section 92 of the Constitution of the Republic of Latvia, which states that “everyone shall be presumed innocent until his or her guilt has been established in accordance with law”.
PSKUS has yet to make any decisions in regards to the possible replacement of the current head of NMC.
The hospital once again stresses it does not possess information that would doubt Fūrmanis’ ability to perform his duties in a specific institution, or call into question the integrity as a doctor, his loyalty to the hospital and ability to make decisions.
Officials responsible for medical institutions in the hospital support the chief of NMC and believe the work done by Fūrmanis when leading NMC, as well as contribution to the promotion of awareness of various aspects of ambulance services and his opinion leader’s position in the sector are worth taking into account.
According to the hospital, lately there have been many attempts to pin blame on medical workers and undermine the hospital’s reputation.