In debates held by Latgale District Court in Rēzekne, a prosecutor requested one year and six months of prison for “Gribu palīdzēt bēgļiem” [I want to help refugees] project leader Ieva Raubiško, who is charged with organising illegal cross-border movements of groups of people, as LETA was informed by the court.
The next hearing is scheduled for the 30th of October, when the accused will be allowed the final word.
The organization previously informed LETA that in January last year, Raubiško, having received a repeated request for assistance from several people of Syrian origin who had been on the Latvian Belarusian border for a long time, appealed to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). The above-mentioned people had crossed the border of Latvia to Belarus several times with the aim of asking for asylum and were redirected back to the territory of Belarus.
After the ECHR had decided on the introduction of provisional measures for the said asylum seekers – not to expel them from the territory of Latvia and to provide them with food, water, clothing, medical assistance and temporary housing, Raubiško, together with Egils Grasmanis, a member of “Gribu palīdzēt bēgļiem”, went to the Latvian-Belarusian border to make sure that the court’s decision would be enforced and that Syrian citizens would receive the necessary humanitarian assistance.
Criminal proceedings were initiated for these actions, and Raubiško was later accused of organising the illegal crossing of the border for a group of persons.
Raubiško claims that she had acted to save lives and that helping asylum seekers is not a crime.
After coming across these people, Raubiško and Grasmanis allegedly contacted the State Border Guard and the Emergency Medical Service in order to prevent threats to human health and to inform the responsible authorities about their presence in the territory of Latvia.
The stated purpose of “Gribu palīdzēt bēgļiem” project is providing practical, immediate and voluntary aid to asylum seekers, refugees and recipients of international protection, while assisting in these people’s integration in Latvia.
According to the prosecution, however, Raubiško had intentionally submitted to ECHR false information about the group of Syrian citizens that had arrived in Latvia.
According to the indictment, on the 11th of January,
in correspondence with a Syrian citizen, Raubiško instructed a group of Syrian citizens to illegally cross the Latvian border in order to be able to declare that a group of Syrian citizens is under the jurisdiction of Latvia, thus creating the basis for obtaining an interim ruling from the ECHR.
“Following the instructions given by Raubiško”, a Syrian woman and four of her compatriots intentionally crossed the border illegally in Robežnieki Parish on the 11th of January.
After taking photos in Latvia and sending them to Raubiško, the Syrians, in accordance with the instructions given by Raubiško, returned to the territory of Belarus to await the ruling of the ECHR on the imposition of interim protection measures.
According to the Prosecutor’s Office, on the 11th of January, Raubiško submitted to the ECHR intentionally false information about the presence of a group of Syrian citizens within the jurisdiction of the Republic of Latvia, knowing that at the time of submission the information to the court, these persons had already left Latvia and were in the territory of Belarus.