Criminal liability for illegal financing needs to come into effect from the first cent, because not a single illegally obtained cent should be allowed to be used to enter the Saeima, said Prosecutor General Juris Stukāns during a meeting of Saeima’s Legal Affairs Commission.
On Tuesday, the 23rd of April, the committee is viewing the proposal from the Ministry of Justice for amendments to the Criminal Law which would reduce the threshold for the amount of illegal funding for which criminal liability will be applied.
Existing regulations provide criminal liability if a political party received illegal funding worth at least 50 minimal monthly wages.
From the 1st of January 2024 the minimal wage amount in Latvia is EUR 700.
Stukāns says that political parties are now provided with state funding, and there is no reason to use illegally obtained funds to enter the Saeima. He said deputies have to act to make it clear that illegal financing of political parties is not allowed.
Saeima deputy Gunārs Kūtris stressed that criminal liability needs to apply for severe crimes, not all crimes, because this topic remains on the table. He does not support the proposal from the Ministry of Justice because he believes there is a possibility of multiple formal violations that could potentially surface after the ministry’s proposal, and criminal liability should apply for them.
Chairman of Saeima’s Legal Affairs Committee Andrejs Judins invited deputies to make the ministry’s proposal into a legislative draft to be submitted to the Legal Affairs Committee. Only three deputies supported Judin’s proposal, most either voted against or abstained.
The ministry, looking at the discussed in the permanent working group of the Criminal Law, points out that at present the threshold of illegal funding specified in the Criminal Law, from which criminal liability arises, is too high for persons to be held criminally liable for illegal funding of political parties. In addition, often several persons separately contribute amounts of money below the specified amount, and it is difficult for the controlling authority to prove that these persons have acted in a group with a common intention.
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