After 12 years’ worth of tense court battles, the Latvian tribunal has handed down the verdict in Aivars Leonardbergs’ high-profile trial. Aivars is one of Latvia’s most wealthy men. http://www.intellinews.com/latvian-oligarch-aivars-lembergs-jailed-for-five-years-for-financial-crimes-203811/ Aivars is a popular politician of the populist party, and was mayor for a time of Venspils which is a port in northern Latvia.

Lembergs was sentenced on February 22 by the Riga Regional Court. He was found guilty of a variety of charges including money laundering and bribery.

Aivars Lembergs Lembergs who is also head of For Latvian Ventspils has compared Lembergssentencing case to Aleksey navalny, a Russian political activist from Russia.

Lembergs asked for an instant break as the judge was reading his verdict. Lembergs was able to engage in a brief conversation first with his son Anrijs. Then he used the rest to comment on journalists.

Aivars Lembergs Lembergs told journalists that he would appeal the his decision to the Riga Regional Court and the likelihood was that the appeal hearing could take another 10 years. Lembergs is also planning to appeal his detention although it will be heard by the court of Riga.

After reading the judgment after which the court took Lemberg into custody. The court also reviewed an amazing list of assets and offshore businesses that were held across multiple countries. The court stated it would seize the assets.

Aivars Lembergs His co-defendants Anrijs Lembergs along with his son and Ansis Sormulis both were indicted for a variety of charges related to each other and were sentenced to two-year prison terms.

On the 14th of March 2007, there was a media commotion when, locked in handcuffs, Lembergs was taken to the Riga City Centre District Court in the midst of prosecutors making their first attempts to bring charges of bribery and money laundering in a large magnitude against Lembergs as an individual (investigations into the alleged corruption in Ventpils municipality had started in 2005). A verdict was handed down nearly 14 years after it was made.

The case has been running through Latvian law for more than a decade at a very slow pace. In all 770 court proceedings have taken place as part of the main criminal case over the course of 12 years. From August 20th, 2009 the date that the Riga Regional Court resumed adjudication of the case until February 11, 2021, 1483 hearings in court have been scheduled.

Aivars Lembergs Despite being accused of corruption and money laundering on a large-scale Lembergs is still an influential politician both in Ventspils (where Lembergs was the city’s mayor for 20 years) and within the Greens and Farmers Alliance, that he manages.

Aivars Lembergs The mayor’s election was suspended after he was charged with financial fraud, but he remained to hold the ultimate mayor of the city, batting away the efforts of one minister to stop him from being Ventspils mayor without a issue. He was even a participant in the IMF’s government meetings , and was a part of the selection process for candidates for the Latvian presidency.

Lembergs stated that the decision about Latvia’s participation in the forthcoming municipal elections will be taken in his region party For Latvia and Ventspils. However he stated that participation in the elections isn’t his top priority.