Latvia, Law and Regulations, Legislation

He added that Muizniece has no legal basis to continue work on the Constitutional Court.

Asked whether this matter has not damaged the reputation of the Constitutional Court, Lavins admitted that it is an unpleasant incidents, but that the court's reputation is determined by its rulings.

Lavins was also asked what Muizniece's replacement on the Constitutional Court must be like, and pointed out that this person must have a flawless reputation and a top-notch legal education.

As reported, the Supreme Court's Criminal Case Department today upheld the Riga Central District Court's initial verdict convicting Constitutional Court Judge Vineta Muizniece of forgery.

The case itself started back in 2011, when the Prosecutor General Office's Serious Crime Investigation Department formally accused Muizniece of forgery.

In June of 2011, Prosecutor General Eriks Kalnmeiers started a criminal process for falsification of a Saeima committee meeting protocol dated September 1, 2009. Muizniece then was chairwoman of the Saeima's Legal Affairs Committee at the time.

The criminal process was started in accordance with the Criminal Law's Section 327, Part 1 – forging official documents.

Saeima Legal Affairs Committee Chairwoman Ilma Cepane (Unity) and Saeima Corruption Prevention Subcommittee Chairman Aleksejs Loskutovs (Unity) informed a press conference back in February 2011 that Muizniece, a member of the People's Party at that time, may have falsified a Legal Affairs Committee protocol in order to stymie amendments to the Criminal Law that would have set criminal liability for illegal party financing.

Specifically, according to a tape recording, committee deputies had agreed to forward the said amendments to the full parliament for debate in the first reading. But the protocol states that the bill needs to be improved, altered, thereby halting its further course.

Cepane and Loskutovs revealed that the committee's consultants have admitted that Muizniece had instructed them on what to write in the protocol. It was signed by Muizniece and MP Dzintars Rasnacs (All For Latvia-For Fatherland and Freedom/LNNK).