Human rights activist accused of organizing illegal border crossing in Latvia

The prosecutor of the Latgale District Court in Rēzekne has asked the court to sentence Ieva Raubiško, project manager of the association "Gribu palīdzēt bēgļiem" (I want to help refugees), to one year and six months in prison on charges of organizing illegal border crossing for a group of persons, LETA news agency reported October 3.

The next hearing is scheduled for October 30 at 14:30, when the defendant will be allowed to say her last words.

LETA reports that in January last year, Raubiško turned to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) after receiving repeated requests for help from several people of Syrian origin who had been at the Latvian-Belarusian border for a long time. These people had crossed the Latvian-Belarusian border several times to seek asylum and had been redirected back to Belarusian territory.

The aim of the association "I want to help refugees" is to provide practical, immediate and voluntary assistance to asylum seekers, refugees and beneficiaries of international protection, while promoting their integration in Latvia.

After the ECHR had ruled that interim measures should be taken in respect of the asylum seekers - not to expel them from Latvian territory and to provide them with food, water, clothing, medical assistance and temporary housing - Raubiško, together with Egils Grasmans, a member of "I want to help refugees", traveled to the Latvian-Belarusian border to make sure that the court's decision would be implemented and that the Syrians would receive the necessary humanitarian assistance. Criminal proceedings were initiated for these actions and Raubiško was later charged with organizing an illegal border crossing for a group of persons.

Raubiško argues that she acted to save lives and that helping asylum seekers is not a crime. Raubiško and Grasmanis allegedly contacted the State Border Guard and the Emergency Medical Service in order to prevent a threat to the refugees' health and to inform the responsible authorities about their presence on Latvian territory.

According to the prosecution, on January 11, in correspondence with a Syrian citizen, Raubiško instructed a group of Syrian citizens to illegally cross the Latvian border so that she could declare that the group of Syrian citizens was under Latvian jurisdiction, thus creating grounds for an ECHR interim order. Following Raubiško's instructions, the Syrian woman and four of her compatriots did so.

After taking the photographs in Latvia and sending them to Raubiško, the Syrians returned to Belarusian territory, as instructed by Raubiško, to await the ECHR's ruling on the imposition of interim protection measures.

According to the Prosecutor's Office, on January 11 Raubiško submitted knowingly false information to the ECHR about the presence of a group of Syrian citizens in the jurisdiction of Latvia, knowing that at the time of submitting the information to the Court, these persons had already left Latvia and were on the territory of Belarus.

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