Volume 9 Numbers 1/2

Winter/Spring 2000

Constitutional Watch
     A country-by-country update on constitutional politics in Eastern Europe and the ex-USSR

Latvia - The winter's most explosive news concerned a parliamentary investi-gation into the alleged connection of senior public officials with the sexual abuse of underage boys. The story began last fall when police broke up a child-pornography ring. The matter took a political turn as revelations surfaced that several high-level government officials were involved. In late September, the Saeima (parliament) created a committee to investigate the matter.

At the same time, lawmakers expressed dissatis-faction with the procurator's investigation, charging that it was proceeding too slowly. In early December, Deputy Janis Adamsons (Social Democratic Party [SDP]), chairman of the investigative committee, publicly questioned Procurator General Janis Skrastins's commitment to the case. Adamsons also began to gather signatures from parliamentarians to request the Supreme Court to evaluate Skrastins's investigation. According to the Law on the Procurator, a minimum of 34 signatures of MPs is required to initiate a review, which could ultimately lead to a procurator's dismissal. By the end of December, a majority of deputies (52) from all parliamentary factions had signed the request. Nevertheless, a judge of the Supreme Court, Andris Gulans, announced he would not initiate a review, arguing that the deputies had not observed the neces-sary formalities. A few days later, however, the deputies resubmitted their request to Gulans, who finally relented, nominating Justice Voldemars Cizevski to review Skrastins's performance. Preempting any possible negative evaluation, Skrastins abruptly announced his resignation on January 3. He contended that his resignation was meant to convince parliamen-tarians to refrain from making improper and ill-conceived changes in the laws that regulate the procurator's office. (At the time of Skrastins's depar-ture, parliament had adopted, in a first reading, a new law on the formation of parliamentary investigative committees. The law makes provision for the appoint-ment of a special independent procurator who would report to parliament in certain situations. Several lawyers have described this draft law as an attempt to create a procurator beholden to parliament alone who could be employed for political ends.)

During the entire period of the commission's investigation, numerous rumors circulated to the effect that the commission had statements confirming the involvement of senior officials. But, because there was no direct evidence, the commission could not agree on whether the names of those officials should be released to the public. Particularly active in the commission was its chairman, Janis Adamsons, a representative of the opposition SDP, who served as minister of the interior in the mid-1990s. Many questioned Adamsons's keen interest in the matter since, while the case was unfolding, he was himself the subject of a long-drawn-out court case related to his past ties with the KGB. The Riga City Zengale District Court was investigating whether Adamsons's past employment as a border guard meant that he had been a KGB official and thus subject to laws that ban former KGB operatives from certain employment, including holding a parliamentary mandate. Indeed, on March 3, the court concluded that Adamsons's past work had been with the KGB and that therefore he was subject to these laws. As a result, Adamsons could be barred from seeking reelection.

In the meantime, Adamsons and his commission continued their investigation, scheduled to end on February 15. Although they were granted an extension and the investigation continued, two days later, Adamsons announced in parliament that the names of high-ranking officials-including Prime Minister Andris Skele, former minister of foreign affairs and prime minister and the current minister of justice, Valdis Birkavs, and the chief of the State Revenue Service, Andrejs Sonciks-had been mentioned in the investigation. Allegedly, no concrete evidence impli-cates these individuals. Adamsons recently stated "even in my worst nightmare, I could not imagine that the homosexual brotherhood has such a great influence in the government" and claimed that the witnesses described a government run by a "homosexual mafia."

The public officials named by Adamsons stood steadfast in the face of the accusations and refused to resign their positions. Rather, they requested that the Latvia.procurator general investigate Adamsons's statements. Birkavs, one of the country's foremost legal scholars, declared he was being slandered and announced his intention to pursue a hunger strike until Adamsons publicly revealed all the evidence of the commission. The procurator's office indicated it did not have any evidence to confirm Adamsons's statements. Yet a few days later, the procurator general confirmed that in some of the investigative materials the officials named by Adamsons indeed had been mentioned.

Some observers surmised that the scandal would bring down the government. The coalition has refused to resign but the entire matter has damaged the public's trust in political officials. Adamsons has now refused to hand over the commission's findings until a new procu-rator general is named. Until then, the findings of the investigation will remain off-limits to the public.

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On December 9, 1999, parliament adopted the Law on the State Language by a relatively large margin (52 in favor, 26 against, with two abstentions). With this law, which replaced an earlier 1989 law, parliamentarians hoped both to strengthen the position of Latvian as the official state language and to adopt a law that would comply with the country's international obligations and with the treaties and conventions it has ratified. The law was in the making for some time. After much debate, it was adopted on July 8. But the new president, Vaira Vike-Freiberga, returned it to parliament, concerned that it violated international agreements and the Constitution. More than 50 amendments were submitted during the law's reconsideration. Most parlia-mentarians generally agreed with the president's objections, while the more nationalist Fatherland and Freedom Party (FFP) opposed any changes in the version adopted in the summer. In addition, several linguistic experts stated that the adoption of more-liberal amendments would result in the eventual displacement of the Latvian language.

With the assistance of legal experts, the amended version became a less vague and more detailed text, ensuring that Latvian would retain its official status while the country also complied with the recommenda-tions of the OSCE, the Council of Europe, and the European Commission. According to the final version, state employees should speak Latvian to the "extent necessary for performance of their professional duties." State and municipal bodies must use the state language in record keeping and in documents. Employees in the private sector must use Latvian if their work concerns the "legitimate interests of society," which includes public safety, health, morals, consumer rights, and secu-rity at the workplace. The final version was lauded by international organizations and paved the way for Latvia's invitation, at the EU Helsinki summit on December 14, to begin accession negotiations. Roughly one-third of Latvia's population is Russophone.

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