On 31 July President Edgars Rinkēvičs signed a letter to the Prime Minister Krišjānis Kariņš, in which he called on the Cabinet of Ministers to resolve the issue of granting a one-off compensation to the minor children of the woman killed in the Jēkabpils murder case.
"This year Latvia has been shaken by a tragedy, when a person who never received state protection lost her life. The murder in Jēkabpils on 16 April this year, when a mother of minor children was killed after a long public persecution known to the authorities, sadly highlighted the failure of the state to protect its people. The ensuing explanation by the authorities - police, prosecutor's office, court, municipal authorities - and the search for the culprits elsewhere, but not at home, vividly demonstrated that the state has failed to protect the highest value of democratic society - human life," the President's letter emphasised.
In the letter, the President of Latvia draws attention to the fact that the Law "On State Compensation for Victims" ensures that a natural person who has been recognised as a victim in accordance with the procedure established by the Criminal Procedure Law has the right to receive state compensation for moral injury, physical suffering or property damage caused as a result of a deliberate criminal offence. In the opinion of the President, in addition to this legal mechanism, it is in the case of the murder in Jēkabpils that the state must do more to show that it is capable of taking responsibility if any of its branches of power have failed to protect a person from the dangers of which the state was aware.
"I call on the Cabinet of Ministers to grant adequate and proportionate one-off compensation, regardless of the status in the criminal proceedings. It is essential to take into account both the obligation of the state to act to protect human life, which is derived from Article 93 of the Constitution of the Republic of Latvia and Latvia's international obligations, as well as the provision in Article 110 of the Constitution of the Republic of Latvia that the state shall especially assist children who have been left without parental care or who have suffered violence. I believe that the minimum amount of one-off compensation for each of these persons should be at least EUR 50 000. This amount is proportionate to other cases in which states are obliged to compensate for damage caused by their failure to fulfil their duty and protect human life," the President's letter stated.
The President requests to elaborate appropriate legislation of the Cabinet of Ministers, which would determine the amount of compensation to be granted and paid, to which persons and in what manner.