BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

09/08/2006

Minsk - The Belarus Foreign Ministry Wednesday claimed grounds for the recent arrest of a Latvian diplomat on pornography distribution charges were 'solid ... and legitimate.'

But Latvia hit back instantly, accusing Belarus of breaching its international obligations and damaging bilateral relations.

'Our police have done nothing wrong, and we have violated no international law regarding the treatment of diplomats,' said Maria Van'shina, a Belarusian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman.

'This is an issue of the legal enforcement of the laws of Belarus ... and not (political discrimination) against Latvia and its diplomats,' she told reporters in Minsk.

Van'shina's statement was the first official foreign ministry response to a formal complaint about a July raid by Minsk police on the residence of Latvian diplomat Reimo Smits, confiscating his possessions and accusing him of distributing pornography.

Belarusian claims that Smits had not registered his flat as a diplomatic residence, thereby placing it outside the terms of the 1961 Vienna Convention on diplomatic immunity, the Leta news agency reported. Latvia disputes the claim.

'The contract for the renting of the apartment was drawn up in accordance with all local administrative rules,' Latvian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Diana Eglite told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

A Latvian Foreign Ministry press release further accused Belarus of breaching Smits' personal rights. Belarusian state TV broadcast a video allegedly showing a gay sex act filmed inside the diplomat's apartment in late July.

Minsk prosecutors have charged Smits with possessing and distributing pornography from his residence - a criminal offence in the former Soviet republic.

Smits was released shortly after his arrest. He has since departed Belarus on leave - a move claimed by Minsk to be tacit Latvian admission of Smits' guilt in the case.

'We need to set emotions aside and look at the facts of the case,' Van'shina said. Minsk prosecutors have said they have strong evidence Smits used his apartment to collect and trade graphic images of homosexual pornography.

Latvia has denied the charges outright, and accused Belarus' authoritarian government of manufacturing evidence to support a trumped-up pornography charge against Smits, and of violating international treaties on diplomatic immunity.

The flap has seen Latvia to recall its ambassador to Minsk, refuse to accept the credentials of Belarus' new ambassador to Riga, and declare another Belarusian diplomat persona non grata.

Latvia is among the leading European states pressuring authoritarian Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko over his Soviet-style rulership tactics. Both the EU's Presidency and the French Foreign Ministry have criticised Minsk's treatment of Smits.

Riga supports opposition politicians in Belarus, a tactic considered by Lukashenko to be interference in Belarusian internal affairs.

Source:

http://news.monstersandcritics.com/europe/article_1188612.php/Belarus_Latvia_diplomat_arrested_on_solid_porn_charge