The Riga City Court will hear the criminal case today at 10:00 in a closed court session, in which two private individuals are accused of attempting to offer a bribe of 100,000 euros to an official of the Ministry of the Interior (MIA), according to the court calendar, LETA reports.
This case was referred to the court last year by the prosecutor's office investigating crimes in government institutions. According to the indictment, two citizens of Latvia and two citizens of Russia, against whom the criminal proceedings have been separated into a separate case, acting as part of an organized group, attempted to offer a large bribe to an official of the Ministry of the Interior, and were also preparing for its transfer. The goal of the bribery was to persuade the official, using their official position, to make a decision to lift the entry ban to Latvia for a Russian citizen, the prosecutor's office reported.
The accused agreed on the amount of the bribe, the possible method of its transfer, the procedure and deadlines, coordinated the need to prepare fictitious documents that would facilitate the decision to lift the entry ban, assessed the risks and guarantees that the official would make a favorable decision for the member of the organized group — the Russian citizen who was banned from entering Latvia, and also took other actions to implement the criminal plan.
One of the members of the organized group, implementing the common criminal intent, involved a third party in its execution, instructing them to find an official capable of influencing the decision to lift the entry ban to Latvia, offer them a bribe, negotiate its transfer, and obtain the required decision.
Thanks to the involvement of the public and the work of law enforcement agencies in uncovering and preventing the crime, the members of the organized group were unable to offer a bribe to the official for reasons beyond their control.
Senior prosecutor Janis Omuls noted that this criminal process clearly indicates the need to strengthen cooperation between government institutions, such as the State Security Service (SSS), the Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau (KNAB), the Ministry of the Interior institutions, and the prosecutor's office, in order to effectively prevent such corruption risks, timely detect criminal actions, and ensure that the guilty are held accountable.
Previously, the Latvian television program "de facto" reported that the KNAB investigation is related to attempts to remove Russian citizen Alexander Mishchenko — a lawyer who at least previously worked at the Russian Academy of National Security — from the 'blacklist'.
In addition, one of the arrested individuals is a former employee of the Internal Security Department of the Financial Police of the State Revenue Service, Alvis Pilags, who had previously come under the scrutiny of KNAB and found himself in the dock. In 2008, KNAB detained him on suspicion of receiving a bribe. The court proceedings, which lasted more than ten years in various instances, ended for Pilags with a sentence of four years in prison.
He began serving his sentence in the spring of 2022 but was released early.
Individuals are included in the 'blacklist' by the Minister of the Interior, however, the justification is prepared by the State Security Service.
