On January 5, the Latvian State Security Service detained Sputnik Lithuania’s editor-in-chief, Latvian citizen Marat Kasem, in Riga. On the same day, the local court chose a preventive measure in the form of arrest for the journalist. According to reports, he is charged with two criminal articles at once, including espionage in favor of Russia, which may result in a guilty verdict with a penalty of up to 20 years in prison.
It is impossible to qualify what happened otherwise as the inhuman and vile terror of the Latvian regime against any dissent, the willingness to discard all legal frameworks and principles of a civilized state in order to deal with the objectionable.
Riga has once again demonstrated that for it such values of a democratic society as media pluralism and the rights of journalists are nothing more than an empty phrase. At the same time, the limits of Latvian punitive practices are not visible.
We demand that all relevant international structures, which have ignored the concerns for their safety repeatedly voiced by M. Kasem himself in connection with their professional activities, finally justify their existence, resolutely intervene in what is happening and stop the outrages committed by Riga.
A source: https://www.mid.ru/ru/foreign_policy/news/1846366/
