Political party National Alliance (NA) has submitted a suggestion to the Saeima to denounce the legal aid treaty between Latvia and Russia in various legal, family and criminal cases.
According to information from the prosecution office, there were 31 requests for legal aid received from Russia last year.
NA believes that in the current situation continuation of this cooperation goes against Latvia’s defined positions in relation to the Russian aggression in Ukraine.
Chairman of Saeima’s Foreign Affairs Committee Rihards Kols said that in a time when Russia continues its war against Ukraine, continuation of cooperation, especially in the legal sector is impossible.
The European Union, the Republic of Latvia and a number of other international organisations and democratic countries have declared the Russian Federation a state sponsoring terrorism.
When Latvia’s Saeima announced the decision to declare the Russian Federation a state sponsoring terrorism, it was mentioned that it “could affect” the mutual cooperation treaties between the two countries.
In its report on accomplishments in 2022 the Prosecutor General’s Office of Latvia mentioned that when it comes to requests for extradition of individuals to foreign countries, there were cases when requests were rejected. Extradition requests to Russia were rejected because there were signs of underlying political motivation behind them.
Kols said previously this topic was discussed by the Foreign Affairs Committee. During this meeting participants listened to opinions of ministries, institutions and experts. The conclusion eventually reached was that the decision to denounce the aforementioned treaty is political score-settling.
“Additionally, if the parliament decides to denounce it, legal cooperation in criminal cases, for example, could be implemented in accordance with the Council of Europe Convention of 20 April 1959 on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters. Civil cases are to be handled according to Hague conventions, which regulate legal cooperation in civil cases in topics for issue of documents, acquisition of evidence, child protection and other aspects,” said Kols.
The treaty between the Russian Federation and Republic of Latvia on legal aid and legal relations in civil, family and criminal cases came into force on the 28th of March 1995.
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