Parliament sends back extradition treaty

RIGA - Latvia's Parliament on Oct. 26 returned to committee a draft extradition treaty with Australia amid debate focusing on the prosecutor general's attempts to extradite accused war criminal Konrads Kalejs.

The decision to send the treaty back to the foreign affairs committee for clarification was carried by 66 votes to 17, with 7 abstentions.

The proposed treaty is a "skeleton treaty," created to ensure extradition of the 87-year-old Kalejs, according to For Fatherland and Freedom party MP Juris Sinka.

"We need a proper, comprehensive treaty," said Sinka. "This would include, for example provision of legal aid for both countries' citizens if they are arrested on the other's territory."

Kalejs, an Australian citizen living in Melbourne, was charged in September with crimes against humanity, genocide and war crimes committed during the Nazi occupation of Latvia.

MPs from all parties expressed opposition to the proposed treaty, with the exception of the For Human Rights in a United Latvia coalition.

Social Democrat MP Risards Labanovskis said Parliament should not respond to pressure from the Simon Wiesenthal Center, which has pushed for Kalejs' prosecution. There is no evidence that Kalejs killed or gave instructions to kill, he said, during his time as commander of guards at Salaspils, a Nazi-run camp where thousands died. Labanovskis told Parliament that old people deserved sympathy and should be allowed to "die in their beds, rather than in a prison cell," the Baltic News Service reported.

Extraditing Kalejs would become part of a "slanderous campaign" concerning Latvia's political and moral responsibility for war crimes, said Egils Baldzens, another Social Democrat MP.

But Justice Minister Ingrida Labucka told Parliament the treaty had not been drawn up specifically for the purpose of extraditing Kalejs.

"This is a good agreement which is necessary for relations between Latvia and Australia," Justice Ministry press spokesman Leonards Pavils told The Baltic Times. "Updating extradition treaties with countries such as Australia is necessary for combating crimes such as drug smuggling, computer crime and money laundering."

Dzintra Subrovska, press spokeswoman at the prosecutor general's office confirmed Sinka's assertion that Kalejs can be extradited without the treaty, because Australia and Latvia have both signed international conventions on prosecuting perpetrators of genocide and war crimes. "But it would be easier if it were signed," she said. "Without the treaty the process may take longer."

An extradition request cannot be sent to Australia until the Riga Regional Court has ruled on an appeal by Kalejs' lawyers against the warrant for his arrest issued on Oct. 23, said Subrovska. The appeal hearing is scheduled for Nov. 3.