Ziepniekkalns store security guard denies spying for Russia, admits to hooliganism

Charges in court

Igors Andrejevs, a security guard at a store in Riga's Ziepniekkalns neighborhood, appeared in court on Wednesday to respond to charges of gathering intelligence information for Russian Federation security services. He stated that he does not admit guilt on this, the more serious, charge.

Admits hooliganism charge

At the same time, Andrejevs faces a separate charge of hooliganism, which he did acknowledge in court. The guard therefore denies involvement in spying for Russia but does not dispute having engaged in disorderly conduct that led to the separate charge.

What happens next

Under Latvian criminal law, a charge of collecting intelligence for a foreign security service is treated as a serious crime against the state, while hooliganism is a separate, comparatively lesser offense. Partial admission of guilt means the court will still need to weigh evidence specifically on the espionage episode, while the hooliganism count may be resolved more quickly since the defendant has already acknowledged it.

No further details of the case have been made public — it remains unclear what kind of information the guard may have had access to or collected, or the specific circumstances of the hooliganism incident. The court proceedings continue, and no verdict has yet been issued.