Amendments to the Criminal Law, which the Saeima views as a matter of urgency, provide criminal liability for the purchase of a counterfeit vaccination, testing, or recovery certificate. Responsibility is also planned for the use of a Covid-19 certificate issued to another person.
The punishment is planned as deprivation of liberty for a period of up to one year, temporary deprivation of liberty, forced labor, or a fine.
The Criminal Law already contains Article 275, which provides for a penalty for the production, marketing, and use of falsified documents. However, there is no responsibility for purchasing them. Therefore, when discovering another scheme with dozens or hundreds of false certificates, the police must prove that every buyer of the falsified document actually used it, for example, to enter a shop or cross the border.
The amendments will be viewed in the final reading on November 11.
In the meantime, the Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau (KNAB) has also called for the right to temporarily suspend vaccination certificates in cases where law enforcement authorities have been suspected of falsifying the fact of vaccination during the investigation.
