Covid-19, Latvia, Legislation

Meanwhile, the other person detained on the case - Marina Kornatovska, a doctor's assistant at Riga East University Hospital - will be imposed security measure that is not related with deprivation of liberty.

As reported, the State Police cybercrime enforcement unit detained a man and a woman as part of a criminal probe launched over postings of fake news on Facebook.

The fake news reportedly involve public security threats and have triggered a wide public response. They have raised questions about lawfulness and are aimed at undermining epidemiological safety.

The criminal procedure has been started for hooliganism, a criminal offense punishable by a jail term of up to two years, community service or a fine.

Since the investigation is ongoing, the law enforcement authorities are not giving more detailed information about the case.

Panorama, the evening news program of Latvian Television, reported last week that a video posted by "controversial activist Valentins Jeremejevs" received much attention on social networks. The video was a compilation of popular and largely well-known conspiracy theories about the coronavirus pandemic. The person presenting these theories was introduced in the video as a medic and employee of the Riga East University Hospital.

In the more than 30 minutes long video, doctor's assistant Marina Kornatovska retells the well-known "conspiracy classics" - that Covid-19 has been made up, that infection statistics are fake, that the overload of hospitals is a myth and that Covid-19 vaccines will be lethal. The doctor's assistant even went so far as to claim that medics in hospitals are intentionally harming patients with pneumonia.

A day earlier, the woman had posted an audio recording containing more misinformation - that an international exhibition hall in Kipsala, Riga, is being transformed into a Covid-19 hospital and that the would-be coronavirus vaccines be killing people.

Kornatovska is a doctor's assistant at the Toxicology and Sepsis Clinic of the hospital where Covid-19 patients are being treated.

The hospital's administration has publicly distanced themselves from Kornatovska's claims about the treatment of Covid-19 patients. The hospital has also started an internal inquiry into this case.