Criminal News Today, 17:49 The court verdict imposed on Sondor in connection with the persecution of journalist Springe came into force

AT found that the defendant’s cassation complaint repeated the arguments contained in the appeal, which the Riga Regional Court has evaluated and rejected with reasons. Together with the decision of the Administrative Court, the decision of the Riga Regional Court comes into force, leaving unchanged the judgment of the Vidzeme Suburb Court of the city of Riga.

With the mentioned rulings, the defendant was found guilty of harassing the journalist and was punished with a temporary deprivation of liberty for two months. The final sentence for the accused is deprivation of liberty for two years and one month, because the sentence was added to the sentence, which was not served after the verdict in another case. Until now, Sondar was given a suspended sentence, but if he commits a new crime, real imprisonment is imposed.

AT states that the appellate court rightly found the defendant guilty of the charges presented. Based on the evidence obtained in the case, the court of appeal found that the accused made unwanted communication with the victim several times and for a long time, namely from November 18, 2019 to October 26, 2021, including threatening her.

The appellate court, referring to the findings expressed in the theory of criminal law and the jurisprudence of the Supreme Court, recognized that the evidence obtained in the case will confirm the intention of the accused to instill fear in the victim, as well as the fact that the victim had a real reason to be afraid of the threats expressed by the accused.

Therefore, the AT found that the arguments contained in Sondar’s cassation complaint actually express their dissatisfaction with the evaluation of the evidence presented in the appeal court decision and are aimed at achieving the annulment of the appeal court decision not for legal reasons, but for factual reasons.

This is the first ruling of its kind that has come into effect.

It has already been announced that Sondars was found guilty of the charge according to Article 132.1 of the Criminal Law and was punished with temporary deprivation of liberty for two months. However, Sondar will have to spend a longer time in prison, because at the same time it has been decided to serve the two-year imprisonment he was sentenced to by the Vidzeme District Court on April 17, 2019, for possession of approximately 22 grams of marijuana. Until now, this sentence was suspended, but now it is a real deprivation of liberty.

Sondar was charged with making multiple threats and stalking, or making repeated and prolonged unwanted communications with a person who had reason to fear for their safety.

According to the prosecutor’s office, Sondars wanted to intimidate Spriņgis, who he did not know personally, being dissatisfied with “Re:Baltica” and Spriņgis’ publications. Sondars has been chasing journalists for a long time, for almost two years, knowing that Springe does not want to communicate with him.

He threatened the journalist on the live broadcasts of the social network “Facebook”, came to the office of “Re:Baltica” with a funeral bouquet and called Springe’s private phone many times, sent threatening text messages using SMS, WhatsApp and other means of communication.

Sondars conducted the first “Facebook” live broadcast on November 18, 2019, calling Springi and other “Re:Baltica” journalists rude, claiming that they serve “kangaroos”, and also promising that the moment will come when “Re:Baltica” will pay for it.

During the live broadcast of the video, Sondars asked his viewers to send Spriņgi’s phone number, invited them to tag “Re:Baltica” and Spriņgi in the comments, so that a notification about this video would be sent to their Facebook profiles, and also announced that he would go to “Re:Baltica” with funeral bouquets and grave candles.

On the same day, the accused sent five letters from his Facebook profile to “Re:Baltica”, including a link to the aforementioned video recording, stating that he is a political activist and professional provocateur and wants to come to the office of “Re:Baltica” with a camera and debate live.

Two days later, on November 20, the man, broadcasting his actions on Facebook, arrived at the “Re:Baltica” office in Riga with a funeral bouquet and a transparent liquid filled in a plastic bottle, which he called “holy water”. After the employee of “Re:Baltica” refused to let him into the premises, the man left a funeral bouquet at the door, also expressing an indirect threat to the center’s employees and Springe, taking into account the symbolic meaning of the bouquet.

On the same day, Sondars published a live video broadcast on “Facebook”, in which he stated that everything is not over regarding “Re:Baltica”, and if the employees of “Re:Baltica” watch this video, they should be careful, because “everything happens with the camera running towards streets”. In addition, Sondars announced that he will hold such “actions” more often.

Also in his later live broadcasts, Sondars used profanity on Springe and “Re:Baltica” and asked his viewers to send him Springe’s phone number or private address. He repeatedly called Springe’s phone number, sent rude and threatening text messages for a long time. For example, in the fall of 2020, he sent Springe 53 text messages, calling the journalist a “whore”, “bitch”, as well as threatening to bring the next gift and stating that “I might not go alone this time”. He also promised to hand over an unpaid bill of his own to the bandits so that they would “deal with you”.

According to the prosecutor’s office, Springe perceived Sondar’s actions as a real threat and was justifiably afraid for his safety, taking into account the type, intensity, duration and content of the communication, as well as considering Sondar as a drug addict and knowing that he has also aggressively directed himself towards other persons in Latvia. including several journalists.

The criminal law for stalking provides for temporary deprivation of liberty, forced labor or a fine.

It has already been reported that the police initially refused to initiate criminal proceedings, but the prosecutor’s office established that the police decision was made without grounds and the investigation was renewed.

The police arrested Sondara last fall for aggressively addressing Saeima member Juri Pūci (AP). He was fined 250 euros for the directed aggression.

The man regularly published posts against politicians and the media on his Facebook profile, criticized the vaccination against Covid-19 and shared other similar posts. He was a regular participant in anti-vaccination pickets.

In 2019, Sondar was convicted of possession of approximately 22 grams of marijuana. The publicly available judgment of the Vidzeme district court, adopted in April 2019, shows that he illegally purchased, stored and transported narcotic substances for the purpose of sale.

On October 9, 2018, in Riga, in a place not precisely determined in the investigation and from a person not precisely determined in the course of the investigation, the accused bought marijuana both for personal use and for the purpose of sale. The man kept the purchased drugs at his place of residence until October 10, when police officers found them during a search.