On 23 February, President Edgars Rinkēvičs met with the Minister for Justice Inese Lībiņa-Egnere at the Riga Castle. The parties discussed current priorities of the Ministry of Justice, including possibilities to strengthen the instruments available to the state to prevent prohibited agreements in public procurement, as well as the opening of Liepāja prison and plans for the construction of a new women’s prison. They also discussed the implementation of rulings of the Constitutional Court and the possibility of designating a single responsible institution to oversee the execution of those judgments. Furthermore, the parties addressed the Minister for Justice’s proposal to allow courts, in exceptional cases, to assess whether real estate could remain with a bona fide acquirer, thereby strengthening the protection of good-faith purchasers.
The President and the Minister for Justice also discussed the need for the Saeima to adopt a political declaration rehabilitating individuals who, as a result of repression by the USSR, were unjustifiably placed in psychiatric medical institutions in Latvia or the USSR, and recognising that these individuals were politically persecuted and wrongfully convicted. In the President’s view, the adoption of such a declaration should be supported.
