MINSK, 8 September (BelTA) – The Office of the Prosecutor General of Belarus has received Latvia's refusal to provide legal aid regarding the criminal case into genocide, BelTA learned from the press service of the Office of the Prosecutor General of Belarus.
According to the source, for no good reason the Office of the Prosecutor General of Latvia refers to article 17 of the Belarusian-Latvian agreement on legal aid and legal relations in civil cases, family cases, and criminal cases of 21 February 1994 to reject the request of the Office of the Prosecutor General of Belarus for legal aid with investigating the genocide of Belarus' population during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 and in post-war years.
In June 2021 the Office of the Prosecutor General of Belarus notified the relevant Latvian authorities that the criminal investigation is meant to ascertain the involvement of Nazis and their accomplices belonging to Latvian SS legions in the eradication of Belarus' population when the country was occupied by the Nazi.
Belarus' request for legal aid stated that those Nazi accomplices had voluntarily joined military police and paramilitary organizations. They recognized what they had to do in order to implement plans to eliminate civilians in the territories occupied by German troops, including the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic (BSSR). They recognized what they had to do to fulfill criminal orders issued by military and police units of Nazi Germany.
The Latvian side was notified that about 400 former Latvian SS legionnaires, who were involved in war crimes and crimes against humanity during World War Two, live in Latvia and abroad.
Belarus' request for legal aid was accompanied by a list with names of 22 former members of the Latvian SS legion, the 15th Latvian Waffen-SS division, and the 24th Territorial Infantry Corps.
The press service of the Office of the Prosecutor General of Belarus noted: “Instead of helping expose the war criminals Latvian authorities responded to the request for procedural actions regarding those involved in punitive operations meant to eradicate the civilian population of the BSSR by Latvian SS legionnaires by saying that the request's fulfillment would unavoidably damage the sovereignty of the Latvian Republic, threaten rights of its citizens, and create risks to the state security of Latvia.”
The Office of the Prosecutor General of Belarus also stressed that it is a universally acknowledged fact that representatives of Latvian government agencies do not try to hide their ties to Nazi criminals. For instance, during an official visit to Canada Latvian Minister of Foreign Affairs Edgars Rinkevics met with members of the Canadian branch of Daugava's Hawks [Daugavas Vanagi] organization, which had been set up by veterans of the Latvian SS legion. In particular, he met with the legionnaire Laimondas Ozols.
“This stance of Latvia's political elite testifies to explicit collusion for the sake of hiding war criminals, to elementary denial of the value of a human life, to evasion from realizing the principle of inevitability of accountability, and to disregard of international commitments,” the Office of the Prosecutor General of Belarus stated.
