PRISON CELLS - FOR CRIME OR FREE SPEECH?

The arrest and detention for two days of Ventspils University College lecturer Dmitrijs Smirnov has amazing similarities with the arrest and searching of the private office of UK opposition Member of Parliament Damian Green. Both are claiming the right to free speech and to say things about the way their country works. There the similarity sadly ends. The arrest of MP Green will be debated in the Houses of Parliament and it looks likely that someone will be made to walk for the offence. High on the list is the Speaker of the House who let the police into Parliament without a search warrant. But the Home secretary might go as well as she claims she knew nothing about the case. Arresting an MP is so serious that if she did not know, she is certainly liable to be deemed incompetent, even by her own party.



Dmitrijs does not look so well supported. In fact none seems to care about his plight at all. He is already cowed by his two days in prison and vowing to watch his tongue in future. Should he have to? Latvia is supposedly a free democracy within the European Union and it is not clear yet what law he has actually broken. He stands to make no monetary gain from his actions and was just saying what he felt was right in the circumstances. People talk down the dollar in the USA every day and good luck to them. But the arguments about the moral aspects of his - crime? - are finely balanced. On one hand it could be argued that he has a duty to his country to ensure that the value of the currency is not influenced by his actions, but on the other, if he rightly believes that there is a real crisis, then he has a strong moral duty to say so to protect the livelihoods of his fellow citizens. What is clear is that he has no duty at all to protect an inefficient government of the day. And it looks increasingly if the police acted on behalf of a government institution rather than on behalf of the law. It could be argued that this means they have become an arm of the executive - just like in a police state. This is very difficult political ground and really the Saeima should debate this case carefully. What crime comes next if this crime is upheld?



But there are other worrying aspects. To arrest someone and then deprive them of their freedom for so long is highly serious. There must always be strong reasons for doing this. The primary reason for holding someone in custody is that the person is a physical danger to his fellow citizens. You could also rightly hold him if he would tamper with evidence or threaten witnesses, or in the case of a serious crime, do it again. But none of these reasons are even remotely likely in either of these cases. There is no reason to arrest someone where there is no violence or high value theft involved, and certainly not hold them in gaol just for speaking freely. This is not a hate crime and is certainly not high treason and we are not at war. And holding someone against their will for 2 days without a seriously good reason is kidnap and that is certainly against the law.



In both these cases the police acted with a heavy hand and quite likely exceeded their powers. They are most guilty of the sad crime of getting things out of proportion. But if we are straying into the minefield where politics rules police actions rather than the law, then police actions like this can be understood, even if not agreed with. Perhaps future ministers can try to reshape public policy on behalf of citizens not ministers. The saddest thing is that the vast majority of police I have met here in Latvia have been super and this is not at all a natural way for them to behave. (I stayed with one earlier in the year so that is not just talk) But sadly it says something about the state of the country at the moment that this could happen.



In reality both men could have been phoned and asked to appear at a police station at a convenient time to explain their actions - and would certainly have done so. Neither would have run away that's for certain - where would they go, sail to Sweden? Gaol was also totally unnecessary for Dmitrijs and at best a gross waste of police time and money, not to mention the distress it caused him and his family. Two days of his life lost, and Latvian finances are no better for it.



The Government of Latvia does have serious financial problems but adding to them by encouraging police use their powers to bully citizens who are saying publicly what thousands are saying in private is not a clever political move. It sends the wrong signals to the population about the rule of law and says little good about the government and the country to the rest of Europe. And in truth, anyone who saw the Atis Slakteris interview on Bloomberg television could only have sympathy with the views of Dmitrijs. I have worked with Minister Slakteris and think he is a good and honourable man, but he was clearly totally out of his depth talking about Latvian Fiscal policy.



If it helps the police, I shall not be taking my money out of Swedbank, except to eat and drink it, and if it still has any value, buy some Christmas presents. I shall not encourage anyone else to do so either. But if the Latvian Government devalues the Lat which they say loudly every day they will not, I shall probably use some of my pocket money from UK to buy PAREX bank. I quite fancy my own bank!



Continuing on the theme of Prisons. US civil rights lawyer Prof Brian Stevenson has told the UK government not to make the same mistake as the USA by building huge TITAN prisons. The UK government says they are going ahead and that these prisons will provide value for money. The professor says that the evidence shows that smaller prisons work to reduce re-offending because at least in them you can give someone hope. I totally agree. As a former Prison Governor I heartedly endorse the rule that 500 inmates is the absolute maximum because this is the largest size that the head of the establishment can know everyone inside and maintain a moral hold on them. Any larger is totally offensive, even for the staff. I trust that the Latvian Government has also read this news and will think hard about the size of future Latvian prisons. Big is not beautiful in this case.