A former employee of the Latvian Ministry of Internal Affairs was sentenced to 15 years in prison in the case of espionage for Russia.

The court of the Vidzeme suburb of Riga sentenced retired Colonel-Lieutenant of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Latvia, 63-year-old Oleg Burak, to 15 years in prison in the case of espionage for Russia. this to TASS . reported His lawyer Imma Jansone

The former head of the firearms registration department of the Information Center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, who retired in 2006 due to length of service, was detained and arrested in October 2018. According to the State Security Service, from 2000 until his resignation, he collected data containing state secrets for a fee and transferred them to intelligence services in Russia.

After the search, Burak was also accused of distributing pornography, illegal possession of two firearms and a device for operational work that allows detecting wiretapping. guilt under the last two articles The man admitted .

He denied accusations of espionage and said that the case was opened after a report from a “spy from.” the criminal prosecution He associated with the fact that while working at the information center, he “ revealed facts of corruption in which his immediate superior was involved.” During his service, Burak was fined for insufficient command of the Latvian language, and after his retirement he challenged this decision in court.