A criminal case has been opened in Latvia against Belarusian border guards

The Prosecutor General's Office of Latvia has opened a criminal case on the fact of "criminal activity of officials of the border structures of Belarus." This is reported by the Latvian media.

According to the Prosecutor General's Office of Latvia, on July 13, the department received a statement from the State Border Guard Service of the country, which notes that since August 2021, border guards have been facing "prolonged and systematic migration pressure on the Latvian-Belarusian border," which arises as a result of the activities of a criminal organization, and not because of random attempts to illegally cross the border.

"These events should be assessed not as a set of attempts by individual citizens of third countries to illegally cross the border, but as deliberate and systematic illegal activities of a criminal organization that includes officials of the border structures of the Republic of Belarus. According to the statement, the purpose of this activity was the illegal movement of a large number of people across the state border of the Republic of Latvia to cause damage to the Republic of Latvia," the Prosecutor General's Office of Latvia said.

Riga believes that in Belarus "there is a criminal organization that coordinates and facilitates the illegal movement of people across the state border." Among other things, Minsk is accused of "systematically undermining the activities of the Latvian border Guard Service, damaging the border infrastructure, impeding the fulfillment of the tasks of the border guard service and weakening its effectiveness."

"The initiation of a criminal case is an important step, as it confirms that such actions are assessed not as isolated cases of illegal border crossing, but as a possible intentional crime against the Latvian state and its security," the Latvian department said.

The migration crisis on the border of Belarus and the EU countries began in 2021. The EU blamed Alexander Lukashenko for what was happening and called his actions "hybrid aggression."