Pro-Kremlin activist Jurijs Aleksejevs, who is currently in Belarus, has sent an application to Kurzeme District Court, requesting permission to participate in court proceedings remotely, adding at the same time that he has no intention of hiding from the court, as confirmed by the Court Administration.
The State Police reported previously that it was not possible to bring Aleksejevs to the court for proceedings because the accused was not found at his residence. Police contacted Aleksejevs by phone, who promised to contact the court, which he did.
Because of Aleksejevs’ request, it was decided to postpone proceedings. The decision was made to move proceedings on the 11th of November. This time will be used to resolve the issue of adapting the court hearing to video conference functionality.
Guna Troika, a judge of the Kurzeme District Court in Ventspils, points out that at the same time, taking into account that the accused was aware of the appointed court hearings in advance, the court decided to impose a fine of EUR 350 on the accused Aleksejevs.
The accused was notified of the date reserved for the hearing on the 11th of June. It was the duty of the accused to contact the court and address the issue of the possibility of attending court hearings remotely. At the next hearing, it is planned to continue the judicial investigation.
As previously reported, after his failure to show up for the previous court hearing, it was decided to bring Aleksejevs to the next one by force.
Until now, the accused Aleksejevs has fulfilled his procedural duty and participated in all court hearings, but on the 28th of October he did not appear at the court hearing. The security measures applied to Aleksejevs, including a ban on leaving the country without the permission of the person directing the proceedings, were lifted by the State Security Service (VDD) on 23rd of September, 2020 in the pre-trial investigation because the maximum term for applying the security measure had expired, the administration said.
Aleksejevs himself mentioned on his Facebook account that he has left Latvia for Belarus, where he will apply for political asylum. He justifies his departure by the fact that he was facing a real prison sentence in Latvia.
In reports by VDD, Aleksejevs is mentioned as a pro-Kremlin activist.
Criminal proceedings against Alekseev and two non-citizens – Dimitrijs Sustretovs and Pjotrs Pogorodnijs – were initiated on the 17th of October, 2018, but on the 23rd of November, three persons were detained. VDD also conducted searches at locations related to the detainees.
The criminal procedure was submitted to court on the 31st of January 2023.
The charges are related to the activities of “imhoclub.lv” website.
The Prosecutor’s Office told LETA that two of the defendants created a project in which an association was established and the website “imhoclub.lv” was developed. The creation, development and maintenance of this website, according to the Prosecutor’s Office, was financed from foundations subordinate to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The Prosecutor’s Office believes that the real purpose of the site was to implement information impact measures in the Latvian information space, namely, to create a set of content for the specific site related to the dissemination of propaganda and disinformation in order to help Russia strengthen its influence in Latvia.