Due to the cramped premises... the judge was replaced 0 95

It turns out that the judge of the Riga City Court had to be replaced because the room where the high-profile trial was being held turned out to be too small and cramped!

"For seven years, there has been a struggle for the legacy of Valery Malygin – the producer of the drug company Olainfarm. The lawyers involved were remarkably creative and used the justice system and government institutions for their own interests. Now, for the first time, they have achieved the replacement of a judge due to the courtroom being too small. During the court session, one of the defendant's lawyers was left without a table and felt that this infringed on his rights, another filed a motion to dismiss the judge, and two others approached the court chairman, who ruled to replace the judge and transfer the case to another.

The struggle for control of the Olainfarm pharmaceutical factory, which began after Valery Malygin's death in April 2021, seemed to be nearing its end. One of the contenders – the pharmaceutical group Repharm – convinced the heirs to sell their shares.

To consolidate control over the shares, the management of the parent company Olainfarm was changed, dismissing board member Milana Belevich. However, she was immediately fired, at three o'clock in the morning, and signed a contract to sell shares worth several tens of millions of euros to the Czech investor Black Duck Invest. The Czech company was brought in by investment banker Karlis Krastins and lawyer Harald Velmers. Both were present at the signing of Belevich's share sale agreement. Meanwhile, in the Czech Republic, the agreement was signed by investor representatives Vojtech Kachen and Tibor Bokor.

The next morning, Belevich attempted to transfer the shares from her account at SEB Bank to BluOr, but a bank employee noticed that she had been dismissed and halted the transaction.

A few days later, the Czechs approached the mother of the younger heiress and announced that they were the new owners of Olmafarm. They presented a contract stating the transaction amount – 40 million euros. A few hours later, the Czechs were detained by the police.

In September of this year, the first court hearing finally took place in the criminal case. The case was assigned to Judge Gunta Chepule. The accused Czechs connected from the courtroom in the Czech Republic. Present in the Riga City Court on Valerijas Seiles Street were three defendants, a prosecutor, a translator, and eight lawyers.

The decision was made based on a request from lawyer Harald Velmers Oskars Rode and lawyer Armand Smans representing the Czech investors to the court chairman. They requested to transfer the case to another court house. This was justified by the right of all parties to a fair trial, appealing to human rights.

Alda Briede

Chairman of the Riga City Court:

— Two people approached me — as the chairman of the court — two defenders in this case with a request to resolve the issue of transferring the case to another judge in another building due to this insufficient issue of space," the TV-3 program Nekā personīga describes the situation.

As a result, the lawyers' request was granted, and the trial was moved to another building of the Riga City Court. The court chairman denies that anyone pressured her. The lawyers' request was granted so that the defense could not later use this argument to dismiss the court and then in the appellate instance.