Notes

Aivars Lembergs is jailed in Latvia for five years on account of financial crimes.
After 12 long years of heated court wranglings the Latvian judge has delivered his verdict in the high profile case of Aivars Leonbergs. Aivars was one of the country’s richest men and a prominent populist political persona. Aivars Lembergs He also served as mayor of Venspils, a port city in the northwest of Latvia.

Lembergs was sentenced on the 22nd of February by the Riga Regional Court. He was found guilty on multiple charges that included money laundering as well as corruption.

Lembergs who is also the president of For Latvian Ventspils has compared Lembergs’ sentencing case to that of Aleksey Navalny, a Russian political activist from Russia.

Aivars Lembergs Lembergs requested a break while the judge read the verdict in his case. Lembergs had a brief conversation during that break with his son Anrijs. Aivars Lembergs He used the rest time to address journalists.

Lembergs informed the media that he will appeal against the decision of Riga Regional Court and predicted that the hearing of his appeal will take another decade. Lembergs stated that he intends to appeal his detention. Aivars Lembergs However, this appeal will be heard only by the regional Court.

The court decided to take Lembergs into custody immediately after reading the judgment that included the reading of an incredibly lengthy list of properties as well as other assets, and holdings of offshore companies across a variety of jurisdictions, which the court said it would confiscate.

The other defendants including son Anrijs Lembergs, and business associate Ansis Sormulis, were found guilty of a range of related charges and each handed two-year sentences.

https://www.la.lv/tag/aivars-lembergs Lembergs was shackled in the Riga City Centre District court. On March 14, 2007, prosecutors began to file allegations of bribery and as money laundering against Lembergs. Aivars Lembergs These were the first charges to take against him as an accused (investigagations into suspected corruption in Ventpils municipality had started in 2005). A verdict has been reached more than 14 years later than the incident.

For well over a decade the case has made its way at a sometimes farcically slow pace through the Latvian justice system. Over the course of 12 years, 770 court appearances were made in connection with main criminal proceeding. Aivars Lembergs From August 20th, 2009, when the Riga Regional Court resumed adjudication of the case, until February 11, 2021, 1483 hearings in court have been scheduled.

Despite being accused of bribery and money laundering Lembergs remained a political kingpin in Ventspils. Lembergs was the town's mayor for more than 20 years.

After he was convicted of financial crimes, his election as mayor was postponed. But he held the real power and defeated one minister's attempts to stop him from becoming Ventspils mayor. He even took part in government meetings with the International Monetary Fund, and was a part of the process to select candidates for the Latvian presidency even while indicted.

As for Latvia's upcoming municipal elections, Lembergs stated that the choice of whether to participate in these elections will be decided by his local party For Latvia and Ventspils, however, his potential participation in the elections currently not his main priority. https://rus.ventasbalss.lv/zinas/politika/42964-ajvars-lembergs-posle-vyhoda-iz-tyurmy-prodolzhit-byt-deputatom-i-rukovodit-partiej https://www.delfi.lv/temas/aivars-lembergs
Homepage: https://www.tvnet.lv/term/77273/aivars-lembergs