On the 17th of December, the Department of Criminal Affairs of the Supreme Court of Latvia commenced cassation proceedings in the criminal case in which Aivars Lembergs, his son Anrijs and once business partner Ansis Sormulis are the accused, as stated in the statement published by the Supreme Court.
The file consists of 349 volumes. The judgment of the court of first instance consists of 1 924 pages, and the judgment of the court of appeal is on 579 pages. A prosecutor’s protest and 15 cassation complaints were filed in the case – on a total of 1 021 pages.
Having analysed the information available in the case, the Senate has identified issues to be examined in cassation procedures, which was the basis for initiating cassation proceedings.
The prosecutor’s office accuses the former mayor of Ventspils of large-scale bribery, money laundering, participation in property deals he was banned from due to his official position, as well as of abuse of office and other crimes.
The Court of First Instance sentenced Aivars Lembergs to five years in prison. Aivars Lembergs was arrested in the courtroom and remained in custody from the 22nd of February, 2021 to the 25th of February, 2022, until a bail of EUR 100 000 euros was paid. The court of first instance found Aivars Lembergs guilty in 19 charges against him and acquitted him in 21 charges.
In turn, the court of appeal sentenced the former mayor of Ventspils to four years in prison, which was one year less than the sentence imposed by the court of first instance.
The court of cassation re-examine the facts of a case, it does not have the authority to re-examine the facts of the case, examine or evaluate the evidence. The cassation instance verifies the compliance of the appealed judgment with the norms of substantive and procedural law and draws conclusions on the basis of the materials in the case. Judgments and decisions of the cassation instance are not be subject to appeal.