Stokenbergs draws opposition’s ire

RIGA - Co-chairmen of the political party All for Latvia! Raivis Dzintars and Imants Paradnieks have turned to Riga Central District Court with a defamation lawsuit against Minister of Justice and acting Interior Minister Aigars Stokenbergs (Unity), reports news agency LETA. All for Latvia! demands that Stokenbergs withdraw his defamatory statements about the party and its members, published in the July 23 edition of the magazine Sestdiena and on the Web site diena.lv.
The party also wants Stokenbergs to pay 10,000 lats (14,200 euros) in damages.

Stokenbergs in his interview with Sestdiena called Saeima members of the National Alliance All for Latvia-For Fatherland and Freedom/LNNK (VL-TB/LNNK) extremists. All for Latvia! believe that the minister’s statement is defamatory, because the party, since its establishment, has always obeyed the law, it says, adding that its political goals are well-known and publicly available and cannot be considered extremist.

The justice minister’s troubles don’t end there. Ten Saeima members, from Harmony Center along with VL-TB/LNNK, have sent a request to President Andris Berzins to call an emergency Saeima meeting to discuss possibly calling a vote of no confidence against Stokenbergs, said Saeima member Imants Paradnieks (VL-TB/LNNK).

The letter to the president points out that Stokenbergs has been portraying himself as a defender of the rule of law, and has emphasized the importance of honest and transparent business activities in the development of Latvia’s national economy. However, recent facts have surfaced that call into question Stokenbergs’ personal business dealings, which are contrary to what he continues to preach, the parliament members say, pointing to the justice minister’s alleged hypocrisy.
The Saeima members point out that a company partially owned by Stokenbergs has been involved in real estate schemes with the goal of avoiding paying taxes. These tax evasion schemes have caused the state several hundreds of thousands of lats in lost tax revenue.

Taking into account the high ethical standards Stokenbergs has preached whilst in office, the authors of the letter believe that they are strong enough grounds for Saeima to evaluate his suitability as justice minister.
Ilze Aksenoka, insolvency administrator for VN Zeme, which partly belongs to Justice Minister Stokenbergs, turned to the State Police last week claiming that a criminal case be opened, as Aksenoka was being denied access to information necessary for the insolvency process, reports portal pietiek.com.

VN Zeme is one of the companies allegedly involved in a real-estate scheme with the goal of avoiding paying taxes. Kapitala Virsotne, which belongs to Stokenbergs and his business partners, owns a 49 percent interest in VN Zeme.
Aksenoka on several occasions turned to VN Zeme board member Artis Bajars, asking that Bajars present certain documents pertaining to operations of the company, but she still has not received these documents.
Stokenbergs claims that he was just a minority shareholder in VN Zeme and did not know anything about the company’s business practices.

In an interview with Latvian State Television on Aug. 1, Stokenbergs added that he was not involved in the company’s operations in any way, and that the company still owed him more than 100,000 lats.
The joint motion of no confidence against Stokenbergs, submitted by VL-TB/LNNK and Harmony Center, raises suspicions about an attempt to oust a minister who has been highly efficient in his work, as well as to create political instability, believes the Unity political alliance.

The alliance of two radically different political forces to achieve Stokenbergs’ dismissal raises questions about the motives of the politicians who have submitted the motion, Unity said in a statement to the media.
Unity notes that the wish of VL-TB/LNNK and Harmony Center - who have always opposed each other in politics - is suspicious, to say the least. It strongly appears that someone wants Stokenbergs ousted because of what he has achieved in combating contraband.

Unity points out that Stokenbergs, as the acting interior minister, has just signed amendments to the Criminal Law which provide for harsher penalties to smugglers. Furthermore, the amount of contraband goods seized at Latvia’s border so far this year is twice as much as in the entire 2010.
Edvards Smiltens, deputy head of Unity’s Saeima faction, said that some Saeima members obviously disliked Stokenbergs’ amendments to the Commercial Law that made it mandatory for companies to reveal the names of actual beneficiaries, as well as measures he introduced to bring order to the prison system, decisions to improve counter-smuggling regulations and the replacement of the State Police chief.

Stokenbergs has told Smiltens that during the past seven months, he has treaded on many influential people’s toes in Latvia. “Therefore, we could have anticipated something like this, but we are surprised at how united Harmony Center and VL-TB/LNNK are all of a sudden,” said Smiltens.