On Tuesday, 17 May, Riga City Vidzeme Suburb Court sentenced one Valentins Frolovs to five years in prison for spying in Russia’s favour.
The verdict was announced at a closed court hearing. Frolovs is accused of illegally collecting information and leaking this information to a foreign country’s intelligence service.
According to the Courts Administration, the man collected information at the order of a foreign intelligence service.
The court declared the accused guilty of the crimes and sentenced him to five years in prison with probation period of three years.
The court decided to add the time the man spent under arrest – six months – to his total sentence time.
Until the ruling has come to force the court will maintain the security measure applied to Frolov unchanged – bail – unchanged. Additionally, he is not allowed to leave the country.
The defendant and the prosecution have ten day after the reading the of the short verdict to present to the court a written request for preparation of a full verdict. The full verdict is subject to appeal at Riga Regional Court within ten days of its publication.
The prosecution is satisfied with the verdict and announces no plans for a protest, as confirmed by the press-secretary to the office of the prosecutor Aiga Eiduka.
LTV programme De Factor reported on 8 May that construction businessman Frolovs, who served in the Soviet Army in the 80s, has spied for Russia for a long time.
According to the State Security Service’s (VDD) annual report,
Frolovs collected information regarding the arrival of NATO forces and their location in Baltic States, airports used for military logistics, the strength of Latvia’s army and domestic policy, De Factor reports.
Last year Frolovs was put under arrest. His defence attorney Egons Rusanovs requested the arrest to be replaced with bail. Judge Biruta Horuna released him for EUR 30 000 bail money.
BNN previously reported that so far VDD has investigated eight espionage-related criminal procedures against nine people.