Latvian parliament supports taking away citizenship from those who support war crimes

On Wednesday, 6 April, Saeima’s Defence, Internal Affairs and Corruption Prevention Committee passed in two readings amendments the Citizenship Law, which provide legal basis for taking away Latvian citizenship from people who support war crimes.
Law amendments were marked as urgent and the Saeima will decide on them on Thursday, 7 April.
Amendments proposed by the Ministry of Justice provide a procedure under which Latvian citizenship can be taken from residents who provide significant financial, material, propaganda, technological or other forms of support for persons, countries and other subjects that have performed actions, including crimes against peace, genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and other crimes that put at risk territorial integrity, sovereignty, independence or constitutional order of democratic countries.
The ministry’s proposed version provides a procedure under which citizenship can be taken away if a person participates in the aforementioned activities and as long as taking away citizenship does not result in the person becoming a stateless person.
Provision of aforementioned support of war crimes and participation in other related illegal activities will need to be proven with a report from state security institutions.
The decision regarding taking away citizenship will need to be made by the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs. Its decision can be challenged in court, however.
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The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has objections for the decision-making procedure and appeal procedure. The ministry has noted that the decision regarding taking away a person’s citizenship should be made by the Administrative District Court, whose rulings would be subject to appeal in the Supreme Court.
The committee voted for both versions. In the end the decision was made in favour of the redaction proposed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.