Latvian citizen sentenced to five years in prison for spying for Russia

On Wednesday, 23 March, Riga City Vidzeme Suburb Court found Andris Birzgailis guilty of spying for Russia and sentenced him to five years in prison, as reported by the court.
LETA reports that the accused is 1955-born Latvian citizen Andris Birzgailis. There is no detailed publicly available information about this person. However, information from firmas.lv shows that until 2009 this man was employed at Bauskas Zemgali sports club.
The court decided to approve the agreement reached between prosecutor Baiba Balode and the accused on 23 February.
Birzgailis was found guilty of a crime in accordance with Part 1 of Section 85 of the Criminal Law – collection of non-disclosable information to later transfer said information to a third country.
Such a crime is punishable with deprivation of freedom for up to four years and six months with probation period of three years.
He was also found guilty of a crime in accordance with Part 2 of Section 233 of the Criminal Law – storage of firearms and munition without a permit. The court decided to punish him with deprivation of freedom for one year.
In accordance with the Criminal Law, the final penalty for Birzgailis was calculated based on the total extent of the crime, partially putting together the penalties, which concluded with deprivation of freedom for five years with probation period of three years.
In accordance with Section 52 of the Criminal Law, the court decided to include the time the accused spent under arrest between 5 September 2021 and the day the verdict came to force.
The court decided to keep the security measure – arrest – in place.
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The prosecutor, the accused, the defence and the victim have ten days to submit a written request to Riga City Vidzeme Suburb Court for the full text of the verdict. A shortened verdict is not subject to appeal and comes to force once the term for composition of a full text of the verdict has run out and no request is submitted.
As previously reported, in January Riga court district prosecutor’s office prosecuted the man in accordance with two sections of the Criminal Law – espionage and acquisition and storage of firearms and munition without a permit.
On 23 February the prosecutor and the accused reached a deal on admission of guilt and penalty.
BNN previously reported that the man is one of two people who were detained by Latvia’s State Security Service (VDD) in cooperation with Military Intelligence and Security Service (MIDD) for lasting cooperation with Russian military intelligence service and provision of non-disclosable information about the country’s defence sector.
According to information from VDD, the two persons met with representatives of Russian military intelligence in Russia.
The investigation revealed that the man used his business contacts to compile, analyse and hand over sensitive information about Latvia’s National Armed Forces, procedures, plans and drills, procurements and activities of NATO groups in Latvia to Russian military intelligence.
It is also reported that in a different criminal procedure last year, VDD detained then the Saeima deputy Jānis Ādamsons. After his detainment, the politician was put under arrest. At the end of 2021 the court allowed his release in exchange for bail of EUR 30 000. The money was paid on 5 January 2022.
Ādamsons remains the accused in this criminal case.
In this criminal case there is another accused person – Russian citizen and former KGB worker Gennady Silonov. He is accused of illegal collection of non-disclosable information and provision of said information to foreign intelligence services.