On 11 January 2022 the prosecutor of the Office of the Prosecutor General’s Criminal Affairs Department Corruption Prevention Coordination Office submitted a protest in regards to the not guilty verdict announced by the court of appeal instance in the digital television criminal case, as confirmed by the office of the prosecutor.
The cassation protest was submitted in the criminal case regarding the digital television adoption project of 2002-2003 and the contract signed between JSC Digitālais Latvijas radio (DLRTC) and Kempmayer Media Limited. On 22 January 2022 the prosecutor also submitted additions to the protest.
The protest was submitted because, after reading through the verdict of the court of appeal instance, it was uncovered that the court had incorrectly interpreted and used the Criminal Law’s General and Special part. On top of that, the court allowed major violations of the Criminal Procedure Law’s regulations for evaluation of evidence, which resulted in an unjustified and unlawful verdict.
The prosecutor notes that the court of appeal instance has not evaluated a number of state charges and evidence presented by the court of first instance and had unjustifiably rejected them.
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Additionally, evidence was viewed haphazardly, selectively and only on the surface. Evidence was also viewed only on the surface not according to their content, the office of the prosecutor stresses.
The court was also unapologetically guided by the declarative testimonies of the accused, unjustifiably treating the testimonies with greater importance and credibility than other evidence.
All this has led to absolutely incorrect conclusions that ignored evidence: that the accused did not act illegally when they signed a contract with Kempmayer Media Limited on 14 November 2002 and did not illegally acquire DLRTC property and did not lie about working in the interest of DLRTC and that the contract was economically beneficial for DLRTC and did not have artificially inflated costs. The court also declared the accused did not thereby cause damages.
The prosecution believes the violations of the law committed by the court of appeal instance allow for a complete cancellation of the court’s ruling and have the case handed instead to Riga Regional Court.
As previously reported, on 12 July 2021 Riga Regional Court finished viewing the so-called digital television criminal case in an appeal procedure and declared all of the accused not guilty.
Judges Iveta Brimerberga and Daiga Kalniņa explained that the grounds for the acquittal were not finding the merits of a crime in the deeds done by the accused.
Reportedly, the people charged in the case were Andrejs Ēķis, Jurģis Liepnieks, Jānis Loze, Harijs Krongorns, Gints Bandēns, Guntars Spunde, Māris Pauders, Mārtiņš Kvēps, Jānis Svārpstons, Jānis Zips, Juris Ulmanis, Ināra Rudaka, Alfrēds Janevics, Jānis Plūme and Uldis Kokins.
The digital television criminal case is tied to the contract signed between Digital Latvian Radio and Television Centre (DLRTC) and a subsidiary of Kempmayer Media Limited Kempmayer Media Latvia, which included the adoption of digital television in Latvia and procurement of equipment for digital broadcasting. The total costs of the project were estimated in several dozen million lats.
In summer 2019 the court of appeal instance declared a number of people guilty.
Judges sentenced to prison a number of former Kempmayer Media Latvia officials. However, the Supreme Court later cancelled the verdict of the court of appeal instance and the case had once again ended up in Riga Regional Court.
The Supreme Court cancelled the guilty verdict but kept in force the portion of the verdict regarding the previously acquitted persons.
The Supreme Court found that, when presenting a new description of the crimes committed, the court of appeal instance had altered the extent of finances acquired through fraud, had not mentioned the evidence that was used as basis for the court’s verdict, and had not presented explanations why other evidence was rejected.
The Supreme Cort also noted that property loss as part of fraud plays a major role in the settlement of criminal disputes. This means the total extent of damages needs to be assessed carefully and the conclusion needs to be backed by the law and evaluated evidence.
Considering that the court now has to decide on the total size of damages caused by the crime, it is also necessary to resolve the issue of money laundering, the Supreme Court noted.
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As previously reported, there are nine suspects in the criminal case regarding fraud committed in a group: ex-Prime Minister of Latvia Šķēle, ex-Minister of Transport Šlesers, ex-chairman of the board of SIA Tet Gulbis, ex-state secretary to the Ministry of Transport Nils Freivalds, as well as former chairman of the board of Latvian State Radio and Television Centre Lauris Dripe. Among the accused are also Lattelecom (Tet) commercial director at the time Jānis Ligers, Business Office lead Toms Ābele, Business Support Office lead Toms Meisītis and former board member of Hannu Digital Gintars Kavacis.
The aforementioned people are accused of money laundering, specifically activities related to the tender organized by the Ministry of Transport in 2008 and the contracts signed between SIA Tet, SIA Hannu Digital and Latvian State Radio and Television Centre, as the office of the prosecutor told journalists.
The accused are believed to have acted together to make sure SIA Hannu Digital wins in the project and receives financing worth several million euros. In the process, however, the national project’s overall costs were artificially inflated.
Prosecutor protests not guilty verdict in digital television criminal case
