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Riga mayor vows to fight dismissal in court

This decision is utterly unlawful and unprofessional, Usakovs said

Nils Usakovs Alexander Ryumin/TASS

Nils Usakovs

© Alexander Ryumin/TASS

RIGA, April 5. /TASS/. Nils Usakovs, the sacked Chairman of the Riga City Council, blasted the decision to discharge him as unlawful and unprofessional, adding that he will appeal it in court.

"The first thing we see is that those who lost the 2017 Riga City Council elections are now trying to get revenge," he said in an interview with the LTN television channel. "This decision is utterly unlawful and unprofessional."

Usakovs vowed to fight this decision in court by filing an appeal.

"It is crystal clear that I will take this to court and I am quite certain that all the illegal misconduct that the Minister [for Environmental Protection and Regional Development Juris Puce] has committed by signing this decree will be proven in court," Usakovs pointed out.

According to the politician, Vice Mayor Oleg Burov will act as the Mayor starting this Friday.

Riga Mayor’s dismissal

On Friday, Latvia's official publisher Latvijas Vestnesis published a decree signed by Minister for Environmental Protection and Regional Development Juris Puce ordering the dismissal of Riga Mayor Nils Usakovs. The decree listed all the violations that Usakovs committed as mayor, which mainly relate to the cooperation between the city and the Rigas Satiksme transportation company and state that there were inconsistencies in a report on the authorized capital of the Riga transportation enterprise and budget injections into it. As the decree stipulates, Nils Usakovs as the Riga Mayor and a Rigas Satiksme shareholder is fully responsible for all the discrepancies in the reports, it also states that the decision can be appealed within 30 days of its publication.

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Riga mayor dismissed from office after corruption scandal

On January 30, the Latvian Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau searched the Riga mayor’s office and residence as part of a criminal investigation of the Rigas Satiksme transportation company that has been mired in a corruption scandal since the end of 2018. Usakovs said that he hadn’t committed any crime or criminal offences. According to him, no investigation was launched against him and no suspicions were put forward. Latvian nationalists demanded that he resign, however, the politician retained his position in office.

Following these events, Puce said that his ministry had begun investigating the Riga City Council. On March 21, the ministry reported that the probe had been completed and a number of possible violations had been identified, while the Riga mayor had to provide explanations about these findings. In accordance with Latvian law, the Regional Development Minister can dismiss the mayor or initiate the dissolution of the City Council. Earlier, Usakovs repeatedly vowed that if an illegal decision on his discharge was taken, he would appeal in court.

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