Latvia’s top court says prosecutor cannot challenge timber decisions

Latvia’s Constitutional Court will not open a case over government decisions that allowed timber companies to buy logs from Latvian State Forests at reduced prices, LSM reported. The court said the prosecutor general was not authorised to challenge the decisions.

Prosecutor General Armīns Meisters had asked the court to invalidate two points in Cabinet protocol decisions. They instructed the Ministry of Agriculture to adjust prices in 2024 and continue the adjustments for a year in long-term contracts for deliveries of second-grade conifer sawlogs from Latvian State Forests.

The prosecution argued that the Cabinet had issued the decisions without a legal delegation allowing state property to be sold below the prices set in civil contracts.

The court said the decisions were individual legal acts, not regulatory acts that it could review under its authority. Only entities specifically named in the Constitutional Court Law may ask it to review individual acts. They include the president, the Saeima, at least 20 members of parliament, the Cabinet and the Council for the Judiciary. The prosecutor general is not among them.

In March, the Prosecutor General’s Office opened criminal proceedings over suspected illegal support for timber companies that allegedly caused losses to Latvian State Forests. Proceedings were launched against 10 people. On May 14, former Agriculture Minister and Green and Farmers Union leader Armands Krauze, as well as former ministry state secretary and then State Chancellery head Raivis Kronbergs, were temporarily detained. Krauze was dismissed from his post.