People abusing freedom of speech to spread disinformation and hate speech should be detained and isolated from society, Latvia’s Prosecutor General, Armins Meisters, stated, LETA reports. He said that the Prosecution Office would take action against specific individuals who were acting against Latvia’s national interests under the cover of press freedom and freedom of expression….
Two pro-Russian activists facing criminal liability in Latvia and Lithuania, Aleksejs Roslikovs and Antanas Kandrotas, have fled to neighbouring Belarus, LRT reports. Roslikovs, a former member of the Latvian parliament, the Saeima, and former member of the Riga city council representing the pro-Russian For Stability party, has been charged in Latvia with incitement of national…
Lithuania’s Financial Crime Investigation Service (FNTT) carried out searches at the homes and in the offices of MP Remigijus Zemaitaitis, leader of the far-right populist party, Dawn of Nemunas (PPNA), and another PPNA MP, Daiva Petkeviciene, BNS reported. FNTT also searched PPNA’s party headquarters in Vilnius. The investigation focuses on whether the two MPs committed…
Latvia’s Riga city court has issued an arrest warrant for former MP Aleksejs Roslikovs of the pro-Russian opposition party, For Stability, who has been charged with inciting national and ethnic hatred, LSM reports. At a press conference in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, Roslikovs suggested that he might not return to Latvia, LETA reported. Earlier, he resigned from…
The Lithuanian parliament, the Seimas, must impeach MP Remigijus Zemaitaitis, leader of the far-right Dawn of Nemunas (PPNA) party, if an appeals court upholds a lower court ruling finding him guilty of antisemitic hate speech, opposition leaders stated, Lietuvos Rytas reports. Saulius Skvernelis, chairman of the Union of Democrats for Lithuania (DSVL), and Viktorija Cmilyte-Nielsen,…
Lithuania’s Vilnius Regional Court has found MP Remigijus Zemaitaitis, leader of the far-right Dawn of Nemunas (PPNA) party, guilty of antisemitic hate speech, BNS reports. The court stated that Zemaitaitis had “publicly mocked, demeaned, and encouraged hatred” towards a group of people because of their Jewish ethnicity and “grossly minimised” the Holocaust in an “offensive…
Lithuanian MEP Waldemar Tomaszewski has taken legal action at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) against Lithuanian authorities for discontinuing an investigation into derogatory comments made by TV presenter Arunas Valinskas, ELTA reports. Valinskas had called Tomaszewski, who leads the Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania (LLRA), a “Colorado potato beetle” and suggested that…