A pro-Kremlin activist in Latvia will face a retrial after the Supreme Court annulled a previous ruling that sentenced her to three years in prison.
What happened
The activist, Jeļena Kreile, had displayed objects associated with Russian and Soviet symbolism in her home, including flags and a photograph of people in Soviet Red Army uniforms. She was found guilty of publicly glorifying crimes against peace and war crimes by the Riga City Court and the Riga Regional Court.
However, the Supreme Court ruled that the lower courts had not adequately substantiated their conclusion that Kreile's messages were directly aimed at justifying and glorifying those crimes. The court noted that Kreile did not directly glorify or justify the crimes in her installations, and the lower courts had failed to refute her alternative explanations for the intended context of the messages.
The case will now be referred back for a retrial, where the court will have to assess whether Kreile exercised her freedom of expression in a way that contradicts the Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights. The court will also need to evaluate the content of Kreile's messages and determine what she intended to convey through her actions.
