The Riga City Court on November 9 sentenced Janis Adamsons, a former interior minister and an ex-lawmaker from the opposition Social Democratic Saskana (Harmony) party, to 8 1/2 years in prison after finding him guilty of spying for Russia.
Adamsons' co-defendant, Gennady Silonov, a former Soviet KGB officer and Russian citizen, was handed a 7-1/2 year prison sentence on the same charge.
Adamsons was found guilty of passing information related to Latvian laws, military finances, and the situation along Latvia's eastern borders to Silonov, who passed the information down the line to Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB).
Adamsons was also found guilty of possessing an illegal firearm.
The investigation against Adamsons was launched after Latvia's parliament supported the move by the Prosecutor-General's Office in December last year.
In June 2022, parliament voted to strip Adamsons of his parliamentary immunity to allow for his arrest and a search of his home.
Adamsons and Silonov pleaded not guilty and said they will appeal the court's ruling.
Adamsons graduated from the High Naval Political College in Kyiv in the 1970s when Latvia was a Soviet republic. From 1979 until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, he served in the Soviet Border Guard forces in Russia's Far East.
After Latvia regained its independence in 1991, Adamsons served as the commander of Latvia's Border Guard service and as interior minister. Adamsons was a member of the parliamentary commission for defense, interior affairs, and prevention of corruption.
Adamsons’ eligibility to be a lawmaker has been questioned in the past by politicians who accused him of serving in the ranks of the KGB as the Border Guard troops during the Soviet era were under KGB command.
Latvia declared independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 and is now a member of the European Union and NATO.