Lembergs' health has deteriorated rapidly - the defense is asking the court to react

On Monday, the defense of Aivars Lembergs asked the process facilitator in the Lembergs criminal case - the Riga Regional Court - to check on the application of detention, as well as to replace the detention with house arrest due to the rapid deterioration of A. Lembergs' health.

In the application to the court, the defense has indicated that it is not possible for A. Lembergs to remain in detention due to his deteriorating health condition. It is reminded that already on September 5 of this year, based on complaints about suffering and pain, doctors detected that A. Lembergs has a hernia, which cannot be treated in any other way than by operating on this trauma. The requests of the doctor and A. Lembergs to take him to the hospital for the operation were ignored.

The application also emphasizes that quarantine has been introduced in Riga Central Prison, which further complicates communication about the provision of the necessary assistance.

Operation is not performed

The defense has indicated that on September 29, after regular complaints about suffering and pain, A. Lembergs was transferred to the Latvian Prison Hospital in Olaine. However, it turned out that it was not possible to provide him with the necessary medical assistance, because no surgical operations were performed in the prison hospital. Olaine Prison provides only a surgeon's consultation. The consultation was scheduled for November 22 but even was canceled due to the quarantine.

As the defense informed the court, “in the current situation, Aivars Lembergs is not only not provided with the necessary medical assistance, but he does not even have access to a consultation with a surgeon, and it is not known when it will be available. Aivars Lembergs is in constant pain and suffering.” The application states that non-treatment of the ailment "will lead to a life-threatening condition mentioned in the general practitioner's certificate". A doctor's certificate was quoted, saying that "failure to perform the operation threatens with cutting off blood flow to the intestines and organ blockages."

Critical health issues

According to the prison regulations, only when A. Lembergs' health condition is on the critical verge of life and death will the prison administration have a legal basis to organize the provision of emergency medical care.

As the defense explains, although the detention regulations approved by the Cabinet of Ministers do not state that treatment should be such that the patient is not subjected to suffering and pain, “it would not be correct to conclude that the regulations provide and allow for the normal practice of subjecting a detainee to suffering and pain. Article 95 of the Constitution of the Republic of Latvia stipulates that torture and other cruel or degrading treatment of a person is prohibited.”

The defense also mentioned that in accordance with the regulations of the Cabinet of Ministers, only the medical practitioner of the emergency medical service brigade is entitled to determine that the prisoner needs to be transferred to a medical institution outside the place of imprisonment. "However paradoxical it may be, in accordance with the above-mentioned regulations of the Cabinet of Ministers, this is possible only when the prisoner already has obviously critical health problems, which do not include suffering and pain, although even the Animal Protection Law prohibits hurting them and causing them suffering. In addition, due to the state of emergency in the medical sector due to Covid-19, the capacity of hospitals and medical staff has been exhausted. It is a well-known fact that hospitals are unable to accommodate all patients, leading to queues at ambulances and people dying because they cannot be provided with the help they need. Due to the workload of hospitals, patients are already being sorted. Aivars Lembergs is one of the patients over the age of 65, which means that when he gets to the hospital, he may not be given the help he needs at all. Due to the fact that Aivars Lembergs has not been provided with the necessary medical assistance (for treating his illness) for more than 2 months and will not be provided for at least the whole month of November, Aivars Lembergs is subjected to constant suffering and pain comparable to torture and incompatible with the basic principles of Criminal Procedure - the guarantee of human rights (Article 12 of the CPL), prohibition of torture and humiliation (Article 13 of the CPL). Aivars Lembergs has also been deprived of the rights provided for in the Law on the Rights of Patients - the right to receive medical treatment provided for in the first part of Article 5, the right to qualified treatment regardless of the nature and severity of his illness provided for in the second part, the right to timely treatment provided for in the fourth part. The deprivation of those rights has no legitimate basis, no legitimate aim and is not proportionate. All these circumstances are recognized as special circumstances within the meaning of Section 282 of the Criminal Procedure Law, due to which there are grounds to amend the detention by replacing it with house arrest,” the defense document submitted to the Riga Regional Court states.

Old ailments are getting worse

In addition to this injury gained in prison, A. Lembergs also had a serious aggravation of an old ailment linked to spinal and cervical vertebrae, which had even led him to receive a disability status around 2007. The spinal "pain is constant, does not go away," the document said.

Significant deterioration in spinal health was also observed in magnetic resonance imaging, as determined by the Olaine Prison Medical Council, but further assistance from neurologists and neurosurgeons was not possible due to the restrictions imposed by Covid-19.

A significant exacerbation of this condition is due to the fact that in prison it is not possible to implement the rehabilitation plan prescribed by the doctor, but if this plan is not followed, the patient will suffer from rapid deterioration of the musculoskeletal system (spine, knee joints, etc.), which will lead to a surgical intervention that will require long-term treatment and rehabilitation,” said the neurologist.

"Aivars Lembergs' health condition is deteriorating every day, which may lead to a critical exacerbation of health problems, his suffering and pain are increasing, as a result of which the prohibition of torture specified in Article 13 of the Criminal Procedure Law is already being violated," the application said.

The document is accompanied by 26 certifications and opinions, mostly from doctors and medical institutions.

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