Riga court decides to arrest Roslikovs who has left for Belarus

RIGA - The Riga City Court on Thursday decided to change the measure and impose an arrest on Riga City Council lawmaker, former leader of Stability party, Aleksejs Roslikovs who has left for Belarus.

Prosecutor Kaspars Andruskins made the request as the court was convening for a hearing in the criminal case in which Roslikovs is accused of inciting national hatred.

At the same time, the accused was declared wanted and the trial was adjourned until he was found.

The former MP, who has just announced his resignation from the board of Stability party, had joined the hearing remotely from Belarus, where he is currently based. Videos posted on social media suggest that Roslikovs travelled to Belarus several days ago. Tvnet portal reported that at a "press conference" in Belarus, the politician had admitted the possibility of not returning to Latvia if an unfavorable situation arose for him here.

The court considered the prosecutor's request for a change of restrictive measure behind closed doors.

Initially, Roslikovs was also accused of assisting a foreign state in an anti-Latvian activity, but the State Security Service (VDD) terminated the criminal proceedings in this part because insufficient evidence was obtained during the investigation, the prosecutor's office confirmed to LETA.

The Prosecutor's Office informed LETA that on June 2, 2025, lawmakers of certain Saeima factions submitted a draft decision to the Saeima Presidium, according to which its authors called on the Saeima to instruct the Cabinet of Ministers to establish a commission of experts within three months to develop a comprehensive action program to eliminate the linguistic consequences of Russification and prepare the necessary draft legislation.

On June 4, 2025, the accused, in his capacity as a Member of the Saeima, with the intention of stirring up national and ethnic hatred and hatred between the Russian-speaking population of Latvia and Latvians, posted on social networks video recordings and explanatory descriptions thereof, in which he deliberately biased and falsely informed in Russian both about the draft decision in question, interpreting it as an expression of neo-Nazism.

In the video recordings, the defendant deliberately included false statements traditionally used in Russian propaganda media about neo-Nazism in Latvia, hateful and provocative statements about persecution and oppression of the Russian-speaking population in Latvia, as well as false statements about a complete ban on the use of the Russian language.

Roslikovs believes that the case against him is a political order, which, moreover, has fallen apart because until the case was submitted to the prosecutor's office, the section on the politician's alleged cooperation with Russia, which, according to Roslikovs, was "the gravest article", had disappeared from the case.