No access to secrets for central banker Rimšēvičs

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Governor of the Latvian Central Bank (Latvijas Banka, LB) Ilmārs Rimšēvičs has had his withdrawal of access to state secrets confirmed after Prosecutor General Eriks Kalnmeiers underlined the move June 22.

Rimšēvičs, who has refused to step down amid allegations of bribe taking, had appealed an earlier decision to bar him from state secrets on the basis that he has not been convicted - or indeed formally charged - with any specific crime.

However on Friday Kalnmeiers dismissed the objection in a decision that can not be appealed.

The Constitutional Protection Bureau (SAB), at the end of May, revoked the banker's permission to access state secrets. He appealed to the Prosecutor General. From 1 July, changes will take place in the Law "On State Secrets", which will allow decisions made by the Attorney General to be appealed to the courts, but that law has yet to come into force, so the decision to keep him away from sensitive material stands. 

The Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau (KNAB) has completed its investigation in the Rimšēvičs case and sent its findings to the Prosecutor General's Office for assessment on 18 June. It wants to prosecute Rimšēvičs and businessman Maris Martinsons for taking large bribes in an affair linked to the liquidation of notorious non-resident bank Trasta komercbanka.

Kalnmeiers has yet to confirm the start of criminal proceedings against the embattled banker, who is subject to restrictions on his movements that have been questioned by the European Central Bank, on whose governing council he also sits.

 

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