Juris Jurašs (Conservative Party), chairman of the Legal Affairs Committee of the Saeima, has voluntarily gone to defend Ukraine, the leader of the Conservatives, the Minister of Justice Jānis Bordāns, confirmed to the LETA newswire.
"I can confirm that he has gone voluntarily to defend Ukraine and to fight against the occupiers of the whole free world, including the defense of democracy in Latvia," Bordāns said.
Jurašs was a former senior official with Latvia's specialist anti-graft police force, KNAB, and rose to prominence after blowing the whistle on what he said were attempts to pervert the course of justice via large-scale bribes. He subsequently launched a political career with the New Conservatives party (recently renamed as the Conservatives) on an anti-corruption platform. He took up a Saeima mandate in 2018.
Saeimas deputāts Juris Jurašs pievienojies Ukrainas spēkiem, lai cīnītos pret Krievijas okupantiem. https://t.co/r7BDvFPyoE
— Konservatīvie (@konservativie) March 8, 2022
It has yet to be announced who will take up Jurašs' mandate in Saeima in his absence. He was chairing a remote session of the Legal Affairs Committee Tuesday morning but by the afternoon was already being reported as being in Lviv, Ukraine.
According to officials, by Monday afternoon, three applications from Latvians to fight for the Ukrainian army have been officially received, Sandra Brāle, a press officer of Latvia's National Armed Forces, told LETA.
