Court in Latvia leaves Kasem in jail for another two months

The Latvian court rejected the petition of the defense of journalist Marat Kasem to change the measure of restraint, the report says.

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“The court rejected an appeal to change the measure of restraint, not related to deprivation of liberty, to the editor-in-chief of Sputnik Lithuania. Marat will remain in the Riga Central Prison for another two months, after which he will be able to appeal again,” the message says.

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The journalist was arrested at the end of 2022, during a personal trip to Latvia.

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Dmitry Kiselyov, general director of the Rossiya Segodnya MIA, noted that the media group would call on the international community to respond and would do “everything possible to free Kasem.” Kiselev called the detention itself illegal, and the arrest, according to him, took place in the conditions of “European lawlessness, when a person can be arrested for being engaged in professional journalistic activities, for an opinion, for a position, for the information that he expresses.”