Latvia, Legislation

The Corruption Prevention Bureau's 2018 report states that the prosecutor's office last year closed two criminal cases that it had received from the bureau to commence criminal proceedings. This because of different evaluation of evidence in both criminal cases.

LETA has found out that one of these criminal cases dealt with possible tax evasion by Vaskevics.

The prosecutor office's press secretary Laura Majevska confirmed to LETA that the prosecutor's office had received the case last March and the case was closed in April as evidence in the case was insufficient for prosecution of Vaskevics.

As reported, Vaskevics was arrested in 2011 but was later released on EUR 85,372 bail. The Corruption Prevention Bureau detained Vaskevics on suspicion of offering a EUR 50,000 bribe to a Revenue Service official. As a measure of security, Vaskevics was banned from approaching certain people and locations, leave the country and take up certain positions. This criminal case is still being investigated.

Vaskevics nevertheless received permission from a court to go to Austria where his health condition deteriorated and he needed urgent surgery and treatment, according to his lawyer Jelena Kvjatkovska.

Last October, Riga City Vidzeme District Court was again forced to delay the hearing of the corruption case against Vaskevics, who is convalescing in Austria and was supposed to communicate with the court in Latvia via video conference, after Kvjatkovska explained that her client would not be able to participate in the court proceedings because of a posttraumatic syndrome.