The Russian mission to the United Nations in Geneva on Monday sent a series of letters to various UN bodies about the arrest in early January of a journalist from the Russian agency Sputnik in Latvia for alleged espionage offenses.
«We have sent official notes to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk and Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression Irene Khan, demanding that they pay attention to this story,» said Russia’s permanent representative to the UN headquarters in Geneva, Gennady Gatilov.
In this regard, he noted that they expect to receive a «reaction» to the «ongoing political persecution of representatives of the Russian-speaking journalistic community in Latvia,» TASS news agency reported.
Latvia’s State Security Service (VDD) reported that the activities of journalist Marat Kasem had been under surveillance for «a long time.» According to Riga, Sputnik disseminates messages in accordance with the interests of the Russian government, including ones that «discredit Latvia and its allies.»
The VDD alleges that Kasem occupies «a leading position» — editor-in-chief of Sputnik’s Latvian branch — in its media outlet, as he is in charge of organizing and managing its content. According to the information provided by the authorities, the journalist returned to the European country at the end of 2022 after years of living and working in Russia.
Kasem is being held in a detention center in Riga, the Latvian capital. The espionage charges against him could lead to 20 years in prison in an arrest that has been described by the Russian Foreign Ministry as a «revenge» typical of «dictatorial regimes».
In January 2020 the VDD already arrested several Latvian citizens for creating content for Sputnik and Baltnews, both of the Rossiya Segodnya media conglomerate, on whose director, Dmitri Kiseliov, the EU applied sanctions for his relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin and his support for the war in Ukraine.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
