The Latvian Foreign Ministry notified the Russian embassy that the Russian citizen was detained on June 9 at the Riga airport as part of a criminal case under the jurisdiction of the republic’s state security service, the Russian diplomatic mission told RIA Novosti.
Earlier, the news agency LETA, citing its sources, reported that a Russian citizen was detained in Latvia on espionage charges together with the deputy of the Seimas Janis Adamsons.
The embassy noted that “on June 9, at the international airport of Riga, Latvian law enforcement agencies detained a Russian citizen GV Silonov, born in 1963”.
“We are currently in touch with the relatives and the lawyer of the detainee. It is known that by a court decision he was placed under arrest for a period of 2 months”, – the embassy said.
The diplomatic mission noted that the consular convention between Russia and Latvia requires “the competent Latvian authorities to notify Russian diplomatic missions immediately within 4 days of cases of arrests of Russian citizens.”
“At the same time, the Russian Embassy in Latvia did not receive any official notification within the specified time limit. In this regard, the Russian Embassy in Latvia sent a note to the Latvian Foreign Ministry with an urgent request to provide information regarding the detention of G.V. Silonov. and also inform the place of his detention. On June 17, we received a note from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Latvia, which only confirms the fact of the arrest of a Russian citizen in the framework of a criminal process being in the proceedings of the State Security Service of the Republic of Lithuania”, – the embassy added.
Earlier, the court of the Vidzeme suburb of the city of Riga decided to apply arrest as a measure of restraint to the deputy of the Seimas Janis Adamsons, accused of espionage for Russia.