Latvia has decided to reopen the criminal investigation into the crimes of the so-called Butcher of Riga, walking back on the country’s prosecution office’s choice to close the case last month.
The Prosecutor General’s Office announced that it was reopening the investigation into Nazi collaborator Herberts Cukurs regarding crimes of genocide, provided for under Article 71 of the Criminal Law. This comes after the same office terminated the inquiry on April 4.
Latvian lawyer David Lipkin told KAN News that “the prosecution has come to the conclusion that Cukurs’s actions do not contain elements of genocide or any other crime, and therefore the case is effectively closed.”
This was allegedly in light of the provision of “new information that was not known to the person directing the proceedings before the decision to terminate the criminal proceedings was taken.”
The statement added that the decision to terminate the inquiry was made “without seeing the composition of the criminal offense provided for in Article 71 of the Criminal Law” and that in the criminal proceedings, “incriminating and exculpatory evidence was obtained.”
Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar welcomed Latvia’s just decision to reopen the criminal investigation, adding that “safeguarding the memory of the Holocaust is key in the fight against antisemitism.”
