In the part with which the defendant was convicted of violating road traffic rules by driving a vehicle under the influence of narcotic substances, as a result of which the victim was seriously injured, the decision made by the regional court was canceled and the case was sent for a new trial.
According to the findings of the lower court, the police officer received information that a person in Riga was driving a car, possibly under the influence of narcotics or other intoxicating substances. After spotting the suspicious vehicle, he began to follow, repeatedly ordering it to stop over the loudspeaker. The car stopped, but its driver disobeyed further lawful orders of the police officer.
At the moment when the police officer tried to get the driver out of the car, the man started a rapid movement towards the law enforcement officer, endangering the health and life of the representative of the state authority, and the chase continued. Also, while driving through the territory of the city of Ogre, the driver disobeyed the demands of the police for a long time, as well as violated the speed limit, and finally braked sharply, causing a collision with the police motorcycle driving behind. The motorcycle driver suffered serious, life-threatening injuries.
The accused claimed that he intended to evade arrest rather than attack the police officer. In this regard, the District Court has referred to the judgments expressed in the case law of the Supreme Court and indicated that the reason why the accused tried to avoid arrest is not decisive, but rather his deliberately performed actions, which were related to violence. The Senate recognized that the defendant’s cassation complaint did not present such arguments that could be the basis for canceling the district court’s decision in the relevant part.
The defendant argued that the violations he was charged with, including rapid braking, were due to the influence of narcotic substances, but the evidence related to how his ability to adequately manage the situation on the road and logically plan his actions was affected by the shot to the head was not evaluated. In this regard, the AT recognized that the appellate court did not evaluate all the evidence obtained in the case as a whole and in their interrelationship, previously assigned a higher degree of reliability to certain evidence than the rest of the evidence, did not evaluate certain evidence at all, and, on the other hand, several opinions do not correspond to the evidence obtained in the case.
Tags: person sentenced year prison assaulting police officer Diena
