Vaskevics told to report to jail

2013-04-17
From wire reports

MISSING: Vladimirs Vaskevics, ordered into custody, is reported to be somewhere in Austria.

RIGA - The State Police’s Riga Region Department in early April received an official ruling from the Riga District Court, ordering suspended Finance Ministry official Vladimirs Vaskevics, suspected of bribery, to be held in custody, State Police Riga Regional Department spokesman Toms Sadovskis said, reports LETA. Even though Vaskevics’ attorneys have appealed the decision at the Supreme Court, this should not delay the court ruling being carried out.
The Supreme Court has not yet set a date to review the appeal.

But the difficulty in capturing the suspect needs to be dealt with first. Vaskevics’ attorneys previously stated that he is currently receiving treatment at a medical facility in Austria. Sadovskis did not reveal what the police’s tactic will be to retrieve Vaskevics from abroad.
The controversial Vaskevics stands accused of bribery. He was first taken into custody the winter of 2011, but later released on 60,000 lats (85,700 euros) bail.

His attorneys have said that he had asked the court’s permission to receive treatment in Austria, and had received it.
In November of 2012, a new criminal process was started in the Vaskevics ‘saga.’ The criminal process deals with a suspected 3 million euro bribe given to a witness for giving a false testimony.CPB press representative Andris Vitenburgs previously said that the criminal process dealt with threats of violence against an individual so a testimony would be altered in favor of a person charged with high crimes.

The CPB has compelling evidence to qualify these actions in accordance with the Criminal Law’s Section 301, Part 2, Section 300, Part 2 and Section 15 - threatening with violence to intimidate a witness and attempting to give false testimony in a criminal case on a high crime.
According to the bureau, there is sufficient evidence to believe that a person was threatened with violence to intimidate and bribe a witness, forcing to refuse a previous testimony and give a false testimony within the interests of the accused.