On Thursday, the Saeima appointed Armīns Meisters, Chief Prosecutor of the Riga Judicial Region Prosecutor’s Office, as Latvia’s new Prosecutor General.
Eighty-eight Members of Parliament voted in favour of Meister’s appointment, with none voting against.
Previously, a majority of parliamentary factions and the Saeima’s Legal Affairs Committee had expressed support for Meister.
By law, the Prosecutor General is appointed by the Saeima for a five-year term upon the proposal of the Judicial Council. The same person may serve no more than two consecutive terms.
Meisters has served as Chief Prosecutor of the Riga Judicial Region since May 2018. In 2023 he was appointed to this position for a second term. Since 2000, he has worked in various units within the Prosecutor’s Office, including as Chief Prosecutor of the Riga City Centre District Prosecutor’s Office and as Chief Prosecutor of the Financial and Economic Crime Investigation Prosecutor’s Office.
As previously reported,
the re-run competition for the position of Prosecutor General received applications from Meisters;
the incumbent Prosecutor General, Juris Stukāns; Constitutional Court judge and former prosecutor Juris Juriss; and former prosecutor of the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime and Other Sectors, Jānis Ilsteris.
Stukāns’ term ended on the 11th of July, but the first competition earlier this spring failed to select a new Prosecutor General, as none of the three candidates received the support of the Judicial Council and were therefore not forwarded to the Saeima for approval. The candidates at that time were Stukāns, Uvis Kozlovskis — a prosecutor at the Prosecutor’s Office’s Department for Activity Control and International Cooperation — and the department’s Chief Prosecutor, Aivars Ostapko.
Former chair of the Riga Regional Court’s Criminal Cases Panel, Stukāns was unanimously confirmed as Prosecutor General by the Saeima on the 18th of June, 2020.
Until the appointment of the new Prosecutor General, the duties of the office were carried out by Chief Prosecutor Arvīds Kalniņš.
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