Having evaluated the restrictions of accessible information determined in the Supreme Court, on August 19 the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Ivars Bickovics has issued an instruction to amend “The instruction of the Supreme Court on the acceptance of measures of investigatory operations to be performed in a special manner”.

From now on the persons involved in criminal proceedings will have a possibility to receive information in the Supreme Court regarding an approval or rejection of a particular investigatory operations activity adopted in accordance with the procedure stipulated in Article 7, part 4, of the law “On Investigatory Operations”. It means that the persons involved in criminal proceedings will have a possibility to receive confirmation whether the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court or a Supreme Court Judge authorized by him has accepted the investigatory monitoring of correspondence, investigatory acquisition of information by technical means, investigatory covert monitoring of non-public conversations and investigatory entry.

The decision of an official of an investigatory operations entity and the decision of the authorized judge to accept or reject this decision contains information which according to the law “On the State Secret” is to be regarded as a state secret. However, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court considers that when hearing a criminal case in the court there has to be a possibility to verify evidence, including the admissibility of data obtained during the investigatory operations. Article 127 of the Criminal Procedure Law stipulates that only reliable, attributable and admissible information regarding the facts may be used as evidence.

To receive such information, a written application has to be submitted to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. It must be indicated in the application that a decision to bring a person to trial has been adopted (charges have been brought), and the register number of the criminal proceeding, as well as the fact that the information obtained in the result of the investigatory operations activities undertaken in a special manner have been used as evidence.

However, the interested persons have to take into account that the Supreme Court will provide information regarding the decisions which will be accepted or rejected after September 1, 2008.

According to Article 7, part 3, of the law “On Investigatory Operations”, activities in the course of which a person’s constitutional rights are significantly infringed, have to be performed in a special manner. Article 7, part 4, states that investigatory monitoring of correspondence, investigatory acquisition of information by technical means, investigatory covert monitoring of non-public conversations (including by telephone, by electronic or other means of communication) and investigatory entry shall be performed only in a special manner and with the approval of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court or a Supreme Court Judge specially authorized by him. Permission to perform such investigatory operations measures may be issued for a period of up to three months and may be extended where it is substantiated that it is necessary, but only for the period of time that the investigatory process is being carried out with respect to the person.

 

 

Information prepared by

Head of the Division of Communications of the Supreme Court Rasma Zvejniece

E-mail: rasma.zvejniece@at.gov.lv, telephone: 7020396, 28652211