As the prosecution has not appealed the ruling of the Riga Regional Court, the acquittal of former Health Minister Ilze Viņķele (Development/For!) for official misconduct has come into force, the LETA news agency reports.
Previously, the Riga City Court had fully acquitted the former minister, but the prosecutor appealed the decision, leading to a review by the regional court, which upheld the original verdict.
The prosecutor from the Department for Oversight of Prosecutorial Activities and International Cooperation at the Prosecutor General’s Office charged Viņķele under Article 319, Part 1 of the Criminal Law for official misconduct.
The charges stemmed from Viņķele’s alleged failure to ensure the development of a Covid-19 vaccination strategy in Latvia, which was supposed to cover vaccine procurement, storage, logistics, official responsibilities, and medical resources necessary for implementing the vaccination campaign.
According to the prosecution,
Viņķele was aware of the availability of Covid-19 vaccines on the global market in 2021
and of Latvia’s involvement, as an EU member state, in a joint procurement agreement. It was her duty to prepare a national vaccination strategy before decisions were made on the number of vaccine doses to be ordered.
The prosecution argued that by failing to develop the strategy, Viņķele neglected her official duties and, through this omission, caused significant harm to legally protected public interests.
In November 2020, the EU offered its member states the opportunity to procure Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccines via centralized procurement. According to the findings of the Ministry of Health’s (MoH) disciplinary board, Latvia had the option to order 841,342 doses but chose to procure only 97,500. In the next round, out of 420,707 available doses, Latvia ordered just 100,000. As a result, Latvia’s vaccination rollout was significantly slower than in other EU countries.
When the refusal to order additional vaccine doses came to light, then-Prime Minister Krišjānis Kariņš (New Unity) requested Viņķele’s resignation.
The prosecution later launched an investigation and formally charged her with official misconduct.
Following the MoH’s internal investigation into the vaccine refusal, disciplinary action was taken against former State Agency of Medicines director Svens Henkuzens and former ministry state secretary Daina Mūrmane-Umbraško.
The Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau (KNAB) initially declined to open a criminal case regarding the vaccine procurement on the 9th of March, 2021. However, following an initiative by then-Prosecutor General Juris Stukāns, the procurement decisions were re-evaluated, leading to the initiation of a criminal case.
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