Court affirms Adamsons' KGB link

Mar 09, 2000
Sandra L. Medearis

A court's ruling told Adamsons, his supporters and foes on March 3 what they already knew: Adamsons was a staff officer in the Soviet KGB operated border guard.

Hearing the verdict, Adamsons and his attorney, were puzzled. He would have to see, he said, as elder supporters cheered and chanted his name in the courtroom.

"...I didn't understand the judge's decision completely. I never hid that I was a staff member of the border guards," he said. "The judge's decision can be understood two ways. That I was a staff of the KGB Border Guard - I don't know what this means. I find it hard to comment."

Adamsons of the Social Democrats Workers Party, announced on March 6 that he will appeal the verdict to a higher court. Adamsons worked in the KGB Border Guard from 1979-1992. The court was expected to answer whether Adamsons' involvement in the border guard put him in violation of a parliamentary rule excluding KGB officials that could have put Adamsons on the wrong side of an election law and possibly out the door.

Prosecutor Karlis Kudrenickis said the ruling, read by the judge from a Latvian red folder for 10 to 15 minutes, was not ambiguous.

"What's not clear?," Kudrenickis said. "The judge said directly that the Border Guards were under the authority of the KGB and those who served in those military units were staff members [of the KGB]. I think it is perfectly clear."

The ruling will no doubt have to be appealed to gain clarity of Adamsons' status, but politically it is unfavorable to Adamsons, commented daily newspaper Diena's columnist Aivars Ozolins outside the courtroom..

LETA wire service reported that Latvia's Way Party chairman Andrejs Pantelejevs characterized the Riga Zemgale District Court's ruling as using of the "wisdom of Solomon."

"The fact that Adamsons was on the KGB's staff was known before the trial and there is no doubt about it," Pantelejevs said March 3.

Prime Minister Andris Skele, recently linked by Adamsons to a child abuse scandal, was quoted in reports as saying the ruling establishes Adamsons' collaboration with the KGB and that Parliament's procedures should be followed.

According to Parliament regulations, a member can be expelled if he has broken election laws, one of which excludes from the body persons who have been KGB officials.

An appeal to the Supreme Court can only secure a ruling that Adamsons in standing for Parliament has broken the law. Ultimately, fellow MPs would have to decide whether to kick him out. Parliament will have to decide what the court will not or could not decide, observed Ozolins in a recent column.

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