The case against Sergejs Sidorovs and Svetlana Nikolaeva on charges of espionage was transferred to Riga City Court

The Latvian prosecutor's office has transferred the criminal case of espionage in favor of Russia against Sergei Sidorov and Svetlana Nikolaeva to the Riga City Court, Baltiya portal reported. The first hearing is scheduled for January 28.

Sidorov and Svetlana Nikolaeva are accused of collecting and transmitting non-public information in favor of Russia. Nikolaeva is the mother of Aleksandrs Dubiago, who on May 10, 2022, marched with the Russian tricolor to the monument to the Liberators of Riga in Uzvaras Park. A criminal case was brought against him for this act and he spent more than a month in Riga Central Prison. Thanks to the efforts of his mother, Svetlana Nikolaeva, the charges against Alexander were dropped, but two years later the repression affected Svetlana herself.

This is the first trial for Svetlana Nikolaeva. Since mid-May, she has been behind bars in Ilguciem Women's Prison, where her health is rapidly deteriorating. She is denied medical care and her condition resembles that of a seriously ill person, although the diagnosis has not yet been established. According to her loved ones, these conditions amount to torture in order to extract a confession, but Svetlana is holding on despite all the trials.

Recall, in October last year, Sergei Sidorov was found guilty of espionage in another case and sentenced to seven years in prison, followed by two years of probation supervision. Initially, the preventive measure for him was canceled, but later the SGB detained him and Svetlana Nikolaeva, initiating a new criminal case.

This situation looks like an act of revenge: after dropping the charges against her son, his mother is now being punished. This is a petty but extremely cruel reprisal.