Prison for Photos, the 'Origin' of Money, and the Battle Against Fraudsters. What Will Be Discussed in the Saeima?

The deputies have three days left to work this year.

Next week, the autumn session of the parliament will conclude, and the deputies will go on Christmas and New Year holidays. But before the holidays, the servants of the people still have three intensive working days ahead: on Tuesday and Wednesday, there will be meetings of commissions and subcommittees, and on Thursday - the last plenary session of the year.

On Tuesday, the Legal Commission will continue working on the amendments proposed by 'New Unity' to the Criminal Law. Recall that the deputies suggested providing for criminal liability for the dissemination, publication, and other use of intimate photo and video materials without the consent of the individual depicted in those photos or videos.

Taking advantage of the fact that the Criminal Law is 'open', the Ministry of Justice literally bombarded the Legal Commission with its additions to this law, unrelated to the amendments of 'New Unity'.

Thus, the Ministry of Justice proposes to tighten the punishment for a type of fraud where the fraudster impersonates a state official - for example, a police officer. The Ministry of Justice rightly pointed out that such actions by criminals harm the reputation of the state and the institutions for which these offenders impersonate representatives.

The Ministry of Justice also proposes to provide for criminal liability for 'systematic gifting to an official'. That is, when individuals wishing to gain some benefit in the future regularly present gifts to an official or have already received some benefit and are now expressing 'gratitude' of a material nature to the official for a long time.

In turn, the Budget Commission of the Saeima will discuss the problem of telephone fraudsters who force naive Latvians to transfer money to fraudsters or give fraudsters access to their accounts. Representatives of law enforcement agencies, banks, the Bank of Latvia, and cybersecurity experts have been invited to the meeting.

At the meeting of the Commission on State Administration and Local Governments, the deputies of 'New Unity' will attempt to 'remove' from the draft law the amendment of the Union of Greens and Farmers, which exempts Latvians from the need to prove the legality of the origin of funds if they wish to build a house with their own money.