Candidates for the post of Prosecutor General include the incumbent Juris Stukāns, Constitutional Court judge and former prosecutor Juris Juriss, Riga Regional Prosecutor’s Office chief prosecutor Armīns Meisters, and former Organized Crime and Other Sectors Specialized Prosecutor’s Office prosecutor Jānis Ilsteris, according to information obtained by LETA.
Juriss was appointed to the Constitutional Court on the 21st of November of last year. From 1999 to 2000, he worked as a prosecutor at the Financial and Economic Crimes Prosecutor’s Office. Between 2000 and 2009, he served in the Organized Crime and Other Sectors Specialized Prosecutor’s Office.
In 2009, Juriss continued his career as a prosecutor in the Special Investigations Division of the General Prosecutor’s Office’s Criminal Law Department. In 2021, he became chief prosecutor of the Anti-Money Laundering Coordination Division in the same department. Juriss was also one of the prosecutors in the case against former Ventspils mayor Aivars Lembergs (Latvijai un Ventspilij).
Ilsteris retired in 2021. He served as president of the Latvian Prosecutors’ Association and, together with Juriss and other colleagues, was also one of the prosecutors in the Lembergs case. Ilsteris also ran for the position of Prosecutor General in 2020, when Stukāns was ultimately appointed.
Meisters has been chief prosecutor of the Riga Regional Prosecutor’s Office since May 2018
and was reappointed for a second term in 2023. Since 2000, he has worked in various prosecutorial structures, including as chief prosecutor of the Riga City Central District Prosecutor’s Office and the Financial and Economic Crimes Prosecutor’s Office.
As reported, the Judicial Council announced a repeated competition for the Prosecutor General’s post in mid-July, with applications accepted until the 1st of September.
Stukāns’ term ended on the 11th of July, but no candidate was selected in the first competition earlier this spring. Candidates then included Stukāns, prosecutor Uvis Kozlovskis of the Prosecution Oversight and International Cooperation Department’s Coordination Division, and chief prosecutor Aivars Ostapko of the same department.
None of the three candidates secured the Judicial Council’s support
and thus were not nominated for approval by the Saeima. However, they were not barred from applying again.
Judicial Council chair Aigars Strupišs explained at the time that nearly all council members agreed that Stukāns’ vision for the work of the prosecution service was far more professionally developed than those of the other two candidates, whose proposals were very general and vague. Nevertheless, Stukāns failed to secure a majority because “other factors came into play as to why he did not receive the necessary number of votes.”
Former Riga Regional Court Criminal Cases Panel chair Stukāns was unanimously approved by the Saeima as Prosecutor General on the 18th of June, 2020.
According to the Prosecution Law, the Prosecutor General is appointed for five years by the Saeima on the recommendation of the Judicial Council. The same person may serve no more than two consecutive terms.
Until a new Prosecutor General is chosen, the duties of the office are being carried out by chief prosecutor Arvīds Kalniņš.
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