Janis Adamsons, former head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Latvia in the 1990s and a former parliamentarian, was sentenced to 8.5 years in prison for espionage for Russia, as well as illegal storage of weapons and fraud, the independent Russian website Nastoyashchee Vremya reported on Friday.
In the justification for the judgment, the court found that Adamsons “systematically and deliberately collected and transmitted secret information through the Russian citizen and former KGB employee Gennady Silonov.” As a result, this data regarding the activities of Latvian state institutions, including state security bodies, was sent to the Russian Federal Security Service.
The seat of the Parliament of Latvia in RigaJuris Vigulis/Shutterstock
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Silonow was also sentenced along with Adamson. The court sentenced him to 7.5 years in prison. Both pleaded not guilty and announced they would appeal against the verdict.
He served in the Parliament of Latvia until 2021
Adamsons, 67, sat in the Latvian parliament until 2021, where he represented the opposition Zgoda party, defending the interests of the Russian-speaking minority. In 2021, on suspicion of espionage, he was stripped of his immunity and detained.
Adamsons as head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Latvia he served in 1994-95 and was also the head of the Border Guard. From the mid-1990s, he served on the benches of parliament for six terms.
Main photo source: Juris Vigulis/Shutterstock