The Rīga Jurisdiction Prosecutor's Office has closed for the second time the criminal case against Kapitāls magazine

The Rīga Jurisdiction Prosecutor's Office has closed for the second time the criminal case against Kapitāls magazine for the article "Jews Rule the World," featured in the magazine last August, because no criminal offense has been ascertained. This was also the reason for closing the criminal case for the first time at the beginning of the year. Drobiševskis explained that additional investigation by the Prosecutor General's Office had not revealed any new evidence as to a premeditated offence. The decision to close the case was made on Aug. 22. Last April the Prosecutor General's Office revoked an earlier decision to close the case and assigned the Rīga Judiciary Prosecutor's Office to carry out additional investigations, inviting new experts to assist. At the beginning of March, Prosecutor General Jānis Maizītis ordered an investigation into the grounds for the Rīga Judiciary Prosecutor's Office decision to close the case. The prosecutor's office had received a petition by Grigorijs Krupņikovs, head of the Rīga Jewish Community, requesting that the decision to close the criminal case be revoked. The criminal case was initiated last year in accordance with the Criminal Code's Article 78, Part 1, instigating racial or ethnic hatred, restriction of an individual's economic, political or social rights. The Constitutional Protection Bureau, which investigated the matter, ruled that a criminal prosecution of Editor in Chief Guntis Rozenbergs be commenced. No criminal offenses were established with regard to anyone else, including the author of the article. Latvia's Jewish community protested that the article was offensive to ethnic sensibilities and was written in a "neo-Nazi style."