Riga City Vidzeme Suburb Court plans to continue the review of the criminal case involving Latvian publicist Lato Lapsa’s defamation of lawyer Romualds Vonsovičs on 24 November.
As it is known, Lapsa is accused two two crimes: harassment and defamation. Specifically Lapsa is accused on publishing intentionally untrue, made up and defaming statements about a third person using mass media. Lapsa is also accused of multiple accounts of harassment and persecution, causing the victims of such behaviour great distress and fear for their lives and the lives of their relatives.
Kristīne Bormane (Jančevska) is also among the accused in this criminal case. She was the co-author to several of Lapsa’s publications and books.
Lato Lapsa is the author of the 2019 book Kolaborants [Collaborator] dedicated to Vonsovičs. Lapsa is accused of defaming Vonsovičs both in the book and in publications associated with it. The prosecution believes it was Lapsa who parked a car with stickers parked outside Vonsovičs’ home and it was him who performed other similar acts of harassment.
According to the prosecution, claims that Vonsovičs is a ‘Soviet collaborator’ were put in the book by Lapsa intentionally. The prosecution also states that such claims are defamatory and untrue.
Lapsa is accused of publishing at least 24 articles in which he openly claimed Vonsovičs is a «collaborator», «a supporter of Soviet occupational force», «Soviet collaborator», «a trusted collaborator of the Soviet regime», etc.
Similar statements were used by Lapsa in his November 2019 interview to Neatkarīgaja Rīta Avīze and an e-mail sent to lawyers and assistants in October 2019.
Statements of similar nature were published by him at www.vonsovics.com and www.kolaborants.com. According to the prosecution, Lapsa purchased and registered these domains for personal motives and specifically to defame Vonsovičs.
The prosecution also believes that to further defame Vonsovičs, Lapsa purchased a shuttle-bus and had it plastered with posters with portraits of the lawyer and the word Collaborator. Lapsa put efforts into making sure this vehicle was parked at the office of Vonsovičs, courthouses and LTV building on numerous occasions.
The office of the prosecutor also notes that the accused was also engaged in regular and invasive communication with the victim, as well as sent e-mails of different kind to the victim, his relatives and colleagues.
The accused also caused the victim constant stress by harassing and persecuting him near the victims home, work place, as well as other places frequented by the victim.
Lapsa denies his guilt and claims accusations are absurd. He considers accusations politically motivated, claiming that the prosecutor wishes to prove the «former Soviet judge and member of the Soviet party Vonsovičs was not a collaborator of the Soviet occupational power».
Trial of scandalous Latvian publicists to continue at the end of November
