On Thursday, 9 May, the Saeima in the second and final reading under urgent procedure adopted amendments to the Law on the Preservation and Use of the Documents of the Former Committee for State Security and the Determination of the Fact of Collaboration with the KGB. The amendments provide for the release of the additional card index of the agents of the Committee for State Security (KGB) of the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic and other documents held by the National Archives of Latvia.

"The amendments are necessary to fully implement the will of the Parliament to release the documents of the Committee for State Security held by the National Archives of Latvia," emphasised Artuss Kaimiņš, Chairman of the Human Rights and Public Affairs Committee, which is responsible for the draft law.

The law stipulates that the National Archives of Latvia shall also release without restriction the additional card index of the agents of the Latvian SSR Committee for State Security and the card files of former Latvian SSR KGB agents, residents and holders of apartments for conspiratorial meetings that were removed from the statistical card index of the Latvian SSR KGB for the purpose of destruction. These and other documents of the Latvian SSR KGB, as well as documents indirectly associated with the KGB, shall be digitalised and made available on the website of the National Archives of Latvia.

The law also stipulates that the documents shall be made available without restriction unless they not only contain information about victims or third persons, as specified until now, but also about the health, sexual orientation and sex life of KGB personnel, informants and officials associated with the functioning of the KGB.

The amendments will come into force on 1 July 2019.

Saeima Press Service