MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 08th September, 2021) Latvia refused to provide legal assistance to Belarus in its criminal probe into genocide against the local population during and after the Great Patriotic War, the Belarusian Prosecutor General's Office said on Wednesday.
Earlier in September, Lithuania also denied legal assistance.
"Groundlessly citing Article 17 of the Belarusian-Latvian agreement on legal assistance and legal relations in civil, family and criminal cases that was signed on February 21, 1994, the Prosecutor General's Office of the Republic of Latvia refused to satisfy the request of the Belarusian Prosecutor General's Office for legal assistance in the criminal case on the genocide of the Belarusian population during the Great Patriotic War and in the post-war period," the prosecutor general's office said in a statement.
Back in June, the Belarusian prosecutors informed Latvia about the 400 former Latvian Schutzstaffel mercenaries involved in war crimes and crimes against humanity and submitted a relevant list.
"Instead of providing assistance in exposing war criminals, the Latvian authorities, in their response to our request for procedural actions against those involved in punitive operations, ... said that the execution of the request would inevitably damage the sovereignty of the Republic of Latvia, jeopardize the rights of its citizens and pose risks to Latvia's state security," the Belarusian Prosecutor General's Office added.
