Riga, Nov. 3, LETA. Today, the Riga Regional Court decided to acquit Egils Helmans (VL-TB / LNNK), the chairman of the Ogre County Council, accused of extortion, and Artūras Robežnieks, the current owner of Ogre Television.
The Riga Regional Court decided to annul the judgment of the Ogre District Court of March 27, 2017, to declare both persons innocent in the charges against them and to acquit them, the agency LETA found out in court.
The judgment may be appealed within ten days by lodging a complaint or protest in cassation.
The ruling of the Riga Regional Court will be available on November 19.
Helmans’ lawyer Saulvedis Vārpiņš told LETA that this court judgment testifies to the ordering of the court system. “The Supreme Court has also started to act as a sieve, arranging the correct application of the law and developing court practice,” the lawyer pointed out.
It has already been reported that the court of first instance fined Helman and Robežnieks 38,000 euros each for extortion in a group. The Riga Regional Court, hearing the case for the first time, left this judgment unchanged. Cassation appeals were lodged in the case, and the Supreme Court (Supreme Court) set aside the judgment of the appellate instance, so the case again went to the Riga Regional Court, which had to reconsider it on appeal.
The Senate of the Supreme Court previously acknowledged in its judgment that the appellate court, while considering the case, has committed violations of several norms of the Criminal Procedure, which are to be recognized as significant and have led to an illegal ruling.
In 2009, the State Police arrested Helmani in connection with a case initiated in an attempt to extort money so that a compromising plot would not be shown on Ogre television. At the same time, the Border Guard was detained.
Helmanis and Robežnieks were accused of extorting funds from Helmanis’ godfather, then Ogre County Council deputy Gunārs Kārkliņš, before the municipal elections.
Not to mention the names of the accused, the prosecutor’s office has previously indicated that at the end of April 2009 the accused, using the fact that municipal elections are scheduled for June 6, 2009, agreed with the other accused to illegally demand money from a member of Ogre County Council.
“In the spring of 2009, the accused, while in the premises of a cafe, mentally affected the victim, that shortly before the local elections on Ogre Television it was planned to broadcast a film with compromising content about the Ogre deputy and other local government deputies, which could clearly harm the victim. Ogre County Council deputy, as a candidate for the next term deputy, “the prosecutor ‘s office has previously indicated.
Helmanis has called the accusation against him a political retaliation and believes that the case against him was initiated thanks to his political opponent Kārkliņš. According to Helmanis, Kārkliņš wanted to get the approval of a detailed plan for the construction of the supermarket, which Helmanis strongly opposed, because a memorial place for the repressed had been created in the specific territory.
This summer, the Office for the Prevention and Combating of Corruption closed another criminal case against Helman for alleged irregularities in obtaining a certificate of incapacity for work due to the lack of a criminal record.
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