Video, audio and communications monitoring can be applied only with the permission of the investigative judge, and given in the form of a decision. You can therefore:
- appeal the decision of the investigative judge if you do not agree that the monitoring was necessary and see it as a disproportionate intrusion into your private life
- challenge the action which was carried out by the investigator or other competent officials if you believe that the action was not carried out in accordance with the decision of the investigative judge, the relevant legal provisions and/or in a disproportionate, intrusive way
Appealing the decision of the investigative judge
You can appeal the decision taken by an investigative judge to the chairperson of a court of general jurisdiction. The chairperson of the court of general jurisdiction will make the final decision, which cannot be appealed.
You can complain in either written or oral form, and in the latter case, your oral arguments should be entered in the minutes and signed by you and the person who prepared them. If you do not understand Latvian, the language in which the criminal proceedings and decisions take place, you have the right to submit your complaint in the language that you understand.
You can file a complaint any time during the pre-trial criminal proceedings, before the criminal case has been submitted to the court.
Challenging the special investigative action
The person directing the proceedings, usually an investigator, or institutions or persons assigned by him/her, are empowered to carry out special investigative actions.
You can appeal to:
- the person directing the proceedings, namely, the investigator, if the action has been performed by another person acting under the investigator’s assignment (a member of an investigative group or the executor of a procedural task)
- the supervising public prosecutor if the action has been performed by the investigator
If you do not agree with the decisions taken by either the supervising public prosecutor or the person directing the proceedings, you can appeal to a public prosecutor of higher rank, whose decision is final and not subject to appeal.
You can complain in either written or oral form, and in the latter case, your oral arguments should be entered in the minutes and signed by you and the person who prepared them. If you do not understand Latvian, the language in which the criminal proceedings and decisions take place, you have the right to submit your complaint in the language that you understand.
You can file a complaint any time during the pre-trial criminal proceedings before the criminal case has been submitted to the court.