Last year, on April 16, Leons Rusiņš murdered his former spouse in front of their child and her mother. Rusiņš has still not been found. He had been stalking and threatening the woman for months and repeatedly reported. The case triggered internal police investigations regarding whether all had been done in accordance with regulation. As a result of the investigation, the chief of the police station responsible for the area lost his job.
Now, evaluating the materials and criminal proceedings in which Leons Rusiņš, who has still not been found, was indicated as the possibly guilty person in the murder of his former spouse, the disciplinary punishment – reduction of the monthly salary – has been applied to the Prosecutor of the Prosecutor's Office of East Zemgale regarding violations of the requirements of the Law of the Prosecutor's Office. In accordance with the Law of the public Prosecutor's Office this is the second harshest type of punishment in a particular case.
The review assessed the legality, reasonableness, timeliness of the actions of the responsible officers of the Prosecutor's Office in the performance of their duties.
It is concluded that the public prosecutor did not accurately comply with the procedural legal norms and also committed violations of the requirements of the Law of the Public Prosecutor's Office.
The action of a public prosecutor has not complied with one of the basic principles of criminal proceedings – mandatory criminal proceedings, which impose an obligation on an official authorized to perform criminal proceedings, within the scope of its competence to commence criminal proceedings and bring them to the equitable resolution of criminal legal relations provided for in the Criminal Law in any case when the reason and basis for commencing criminal proceedings have become known.
The violations of the law committed by the public prosecutor shall be assessed together with the fact that the public Prosecutor's Office is a judicial authority, which independently performs supervision regarding compliance with the law within the scope of the competence specified in the Law on the Public Prosecutor's Office. As a judicial officer, a public prosecutor must comply with the requirements of laws and regulations and it is not permissible for a public prosecutor to commit violations of law himself or herself.
The prestige of the public prosecutor's office, as well as public confidence in the judiciary as a whole, has seriously suffered in the particular situation, says the office.
