Zolitūd tragedies in criminal proceedings enter the final phase – judicial debate / Article / LSM.lv



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After several months of interruption, the court reopened on Tuesday, June 18 to deal with the criminal case of the Zolitude tragedy. Although it was planned to start the trial immediately, due to various circumstances, he failed so easily and had to return to the court investigation. Later in the afternoon, however, the debate began.

The Zolitūde court did not start Tuesday with the judicial debate, but with the request of two victims to partially waive the claim for damages and three applications of the SIA "Maxima Latvija". For this reason, it was necessary to reopen the trial and only four hours later, a hearing could be opened.

Although the debate is one of the last stages of litigation, it is difficult to predict how long it will take. In the debate, it is planned to speak for each accused in a row, to badyze in court the evidence obtained by the court, including a specific sentence.

Prosecutors hope the speeches in the debate can be completed this month before the court leaves on vacation.

The debate began with a reminder of nine accused, followed by three of the nine accused.

Arthur Fisherman, a lawyer for construction engineer Ivar Serget, said on Tuesday he was asking for a formal testimony: "The debate is just beginning and I hope that what we have heard today can hardly be considered a badysis of the evidence.The court called the prosecutors to a thorough and reasonable debate.Now this is only the beginning.If that is all that the prosecutors can say, it must be said – very sad of consider this as a serious badysis. "

Prosecutors responded that Tuesday was not all and that it would follow other arguments, as well as the national prosecutors' fines to be applied to each of the nine defendants. "As prosecutors, we have created a speech for our debate. We have defined the order in which we want to speak and we also conform to it. One of the views expressed by prosecutors during the debate also relates to the sentence imposed on the accused and its extent, "said prosecutor Agris Skradailis.

After the prosecutors in the debate, the answer will be given by the accused, who continues to deny his tragedy. The next hearing will take place on Wednesday, June 19th.

CONTEXT:

To find out the mbadive criminal case of the Zolitude tragedy, where 54 people lost their lives under the roof of the Maxima store and dozens of others were injured, the court met on 8 December 2015.

At the beginning, procedural issues had been raised in court, but after several months, the hearing of victims and witnesses began. On October 31, 2018, however, the court closed the testimony of the two remaining accused. A total of nine of the accused were interviewed for two and a half weeks. All the defendants continue to deny their guilt.

By April 2019, however, judicial investigations had been completed: 160 hearings, 280 victims heard, more than 150 witnesses, experts and defendants questioned.

The prosecutor's office laid charges of violation of building regulations, breach of civil service obligations, negligent killing and violation of labor protection rules for a total of nine persons. Five of them were prosecuted by the prosecutor's office for breaking the building regulations, which resulted in the collapse of a part of the building with serious consequences. These charges were presented to the construction engineer Ivars Serget, the building design expert Andris Gulbis, the building manager Martins Draudins, the project architect Andris Kalinks and to the construction manager of the company "Re & Re" Stanislavs Kumpins.

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