Tuesday, the 16th of April, marks one year since Leons Rusiņš violently murdered his ex-wife in Jēkabpils. The incident cause a massive resonance among Latvian residents and underlined numerous violence-related issues. Latvian police have yet to catch and bring this man to justice.
One year ago, at 16:30 on the 16th of April Latvian State Police received information that a man in Jēkabpils had caused severe and deadly injuries for a 1983-born woman and had fled the scene. Police arrived at the scene and commenced immediate proceedings. A nation-wide manhunt was commenced for the suspect.
Police discovered that there was a conflict between the suspect and the victim. The conflict had quickly escalated to violence. The victim received lethal injuries and was killed. According to Latvian State Police, there were witnesses to the crime.
An abandoned car was found in the forest not far from Aiviekste River. It is believed the suspect had used this car on the day of the murder. The surrounding area was searched with help from the National Guard and “Helper Latvia” volunteer organisation.
Latvian State Police commenced criminal proceedings in accordance to Section 116 of the Criminal Law – murder.
The state did not hear pleas for help
The investigation of the murder revealed that what happened was a personally motivated and planned murder of the victim. The suspect had a history of aggressive behaviour towards the victim, including repeated breaches of a court-mandated restraining order on protection of the victim. Mostly the suspect expressed his aggression using communication devices and social networks both towards the victim and her acquaintances. Latvian State Police responded to each violation of the law by the suspect both in individual and general manner. Both criminal and administrative violation procedures were commenced. Fines and short-term detainment were applied, police say.
The victim made multiple attempts to get police protection, but the police and prosecution office did not hear her pleas for help, citing various laws, said the murdered woman’s defence attorney Anna Nore in an interview to LTV programme “Kas notiek Latvijā?” [What’s going on in Latvia?].
Nore, when speaking about her client, stressed multiple times – the woman understood she was fighting for her life. “She understood that he [Rusiņš] was threatening to murder her. In the text messages he sent, he threatened to kidnap the children. He typed their first initials, stating how he would put them in the trunk of his car and that no one would find out anything,” said the defence attorney. This is why in every application to the police, the victim asked for protection against the man. He requested police to commence criminal proceedings for harassment, hooliganism and defamation, as Rusiņš had created multiple fake profiles on social media, which he used to spread lies about her, lsm.lv reports.
However, the criminal proceedings initiated by the police – 18 in total – were for non-compliance with the ruling on protection against violence.
The defence attorney believes the police and prosecution office did not see the whole picture even though applications and pleas for protection were submitted very frequently. Nore said she and her client decided to turn also to Prosecutor General Juris Stukāns, hoping that he would see the full picture and how dangerous the situation truly was for the victim. However, Stukāns didn’t even respond to the letter requesting special protection. Instead of a response from him, the victim received a letter of response from prosecutor Jānis Butlers, who told her that in criminal offences, unlike criminal cases, legal protection cannot be applied, lsm reports.
Nore spoke to the prosecutor as her client’s representative. She informed him the woman is in a tragic situation and experiences intense fear of the man harassing her. “I said, prosecutor, this is a very serious case. Please do something! He said these lovers only threaten – they do nothing,” the defence attorney told the programme.
State Police urge people who have any information about the possible whereabouts of 1970-born Leons Rusiņš or any other information that could prove valuable to the investigation to report it by calling 110 or 67006736.
Police stress the suspect could be unpredictable and dangerous – residents should NOT attempt to detain him on their own! Information about his whereabouts should be reported to the police.
So far, State Police have done a great deal of work investigating this crime. Police also have around 1 TB of video footage from security cameras. Video footage analysis continues. Aside from that, police have also interviewed close to 30 people and have investigated multiple people in homes of which the suspect could have stayed at some point, as reported by State Police.
Compensation requested
On the website ManaBalss, there is still an ongoing collection of signatures calling for the adoption of a special law by the Saeima, which would immediately grant a compensation of EUR 500 000 to the family of the woman murdered in Jekabpils for the failure of the Republic of Latvia to protect the mother of two children from the murderer – her husband and the father of these children Leons Rusiņš. So far it has been signed by 679 Latvian residents. For this initiative to be submitted to the Saeima, it needs to receive another 9 320 signatures.
“We invite the Saeima to develop a law that, in such apparently non-contentious cases, as it has already been assessed by senior state officials, victims have the right to immediately apply to the responsible committee of the Saeima or the Cabinet of Ministers with a compensation claim, and then the Saeima or the Cabinet of Ministers would have the opportunity to consider this claim. This would allow the victims and the state to avoid long and expensive legal proceedings, in which the state compensation sometimes reaches the victims too late. With this change, we will help victims and establish a procedure by which the state assumes real responsibility for the offenses committed as a result of it,” as mentioned in the description of the initiative.
Meanwhile, many in Jēkabpils and other parts in Latvia still live in fear that Leons Rusiņš remains at large. Police have received several dozen reports from residents about individuals that match Rusiņš’s description. So far, however, the search has been fruitless.
More effective protection
On the 15th of June 2023 the Saeima passed amendments to the Criminal Law to provide more effective protection to people who receive threats of violence or murder. Fore effective protection is promised to be provided to the people who are being harassed or persecuted, Saeima’s press-service reports.
Until now, threats of murder or grievous bodily harm, as well as persecution, could be punished with temporary imprisonment, probation, community service or fines. The amendments passed by the Saeima also introduce the possibility to punish the guilty persons with up to one year in prison.
If the victim and suspect have some sort of ties, it will be possible to punish the perpetrator with up to three years in prison.
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One year since tragic events in Jēkabpils. Murderer still not found
