Roslikovs could face detention despite election victory

Accused of inciting national and ethnic hatred, Aleksejs Rosļikovs could win a seat in Latvia’s parliament but still be detained upon returning from Belarus, LSM reported. An election result would not cancel the court’s detention decision, and parliamentary immunity would not take effect immediately after the vote.

Rosļikovs is allowed to stand because he has been charged but not convicted. Even if elected, he would gain parliamentary powers only after taking the oath at a Saeima sitting and having his mandate approved.

Rosļikovs is currently in Belarus and is running second on the Riga list of the Stability! party in the elections for Latvia’s 15th Saeima, according to information from the Central Election Commission.

He has said on social media that he plans to return home on October 3. “I am coming home no matter what. Yes, they will put me in prison, but it will be no more than a few months, because they understand perfectly well that with a deputy’s mandate, with the mandate of the people’s trust, they will not be able to keep me in prison for long,” he wrote.

However, there is no legal basis for the claim that he could be held for only a few months. A parliamentary mandate does not set a period after which a detained person must automatically be released.

If Rosļikovs returned before taking the oath, the detention decision currently in force could be enforced at the border. If he remained in detention until the first Saeima sitting, it would be unclear how he could reach parliament to take the oath.

Even after he obtained the mandate, his release would not be automatic. The Saeima would decide whether the criminal proceedings and detention should continue.