Latvia has rejected Minsk's request to summon the Latvian foreign minister and the mayor of Riga for questioning in connection with the incident with the Belarusian flag, Belarusian Investigative Committee First Deputy Chairman Oleg Shandarovich said on Thursday
MINSK (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 30th September, 2021) Latvia has rejected Minsk's request to summon the Latvian foreign minister and the mayor of Riga for questioning in connection with the incident with the Belarusian flag, Belarusian Investigative Committee First Deputy Chairman Oleg Shandarovich said on Thursday.
This spring, Belarus launched a criminal probe against Riga Mayor Martins Stakis and Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics over the incident with the Belarusian national flag at the 2021 Ice Hockey World Championship after city authorities replaced the state flag with a red-white flag used by the Belarusian opposition.
"In the second half of July, we sent a request to our Latvian colleagues to sent notifications to these officials, calling on them to appear for questioning at the investigative committee ... On September 20, we sent a new request for interrogation ... already on the Latvian territory ... The Latvian side said that it cannot fulfill the request and that 'actions of Latvian officials ... were certainly not aimed at humiliating the Belarusians' national honor and dignity, but just at reaffirming adherence to the development of political freedoms'," Shandarovich told state-run news agency Belta.
