On the evening of August 17, 2000, two powerful explosions occurred on the ground floor of Riga Centrs department store, the number of injured was about 30 people, one woman died from wounds. The event was qualified as a terrorist attack and "the most high-profile crime of the 2000s" in Latvia and was investigated by the Security Police .
| Explosions at Centrs Department Store | |
|---|---|
| Overview Information | |
| Place of attack | |
| date | August 17, 2000 17:30 and 17:40 |
| Attack method | Two explosions |
| Dead | one |
| The wounded | 34 |
| Organizers | unknown |
On October 24, 2001, Leonard Butelis was arrested in the case, whose sentence from the Riga Regional Court was later quashed in the Supreme Court, and on June 18, 2004 he was released. The investigation of the case is ongoing, but there are no specific suspects as of 2015.
Content
Explosions
The first explosion with a capacity of about 400 g in TNT occurred on August 17, 2000 at about 17:30 in the storage rooms of the RIMI department store. There was a panic, the evacuation began, when 10 minutes after the first there was a second explosion with a capacity of about 100 g of TNT near the cigarette kiosk at the exit of the store. 35 people were injured, 21 of them were taken to the hospital, four were seriously injured. Maya Pushmutzane, 53, the employee of the locker room, suffered the most and was taken to the Carolinsky Burn Center in Sweden, but she could not be saved - she died in about a day. One man lost his foot; during the second explosion, RIMI Baltija CEO Knut Kwisvik also suffered, along with two other victims, who was then taken to Norway for treatment [1] [2] .
Latvians responded to the tragedy: on August 18, twice as many people passed through blood donation centers as usual [3] .
Investigation
Before Butelis's arrest
Shortly after the explosions, the police received a call about another bomb, which turned out to be false. The police and border guards were transferred to an enhanced mode of operation; on August 18, a reward of 25 thousand lats was announced for information about the explosions. The obvious version of what happened was a terrorist attack and a criminal case was instituted under the article on terrorism , but other possible reasons were also considered: revenge, business disassembly, or the handiwork of a mentally unhealthy person. This terrorism case was the first in the history of Latvia since 1990, the Minister of the Interior Mareks Segliņš ( Latvian Mareks Segliņš ) declared it the first terrorist act in independent Latvia (although before that in 1998 there were explosions in the synagogue and the Russian embassy ), a “Chechen trace” and even an attempt to remove the Minister of the Interior were suspected. The investigation was undertaken by the Latvian Security Police, which received support from the FBI and the Belarusian police [1] [4] [3] .
It was immediately found that the explosive devices contained TNT and plastic explosives and were placed in compartments for storing bags and not far from stacks of shopping baskets. According to the indicators of witnesses, a snapshot of the suspect was compiled - a man of about 40 years old, about 1.85 m tall, wearing a blue T-shirt and blue jeans. According to these signs, several people were detained, but no evidence was found against them, so they were all released [1] [3] .
The department store resumed operations on August 22, 2000, and the Latvian media developed a policy not to report the threat of explosions from "telephone terrorists" so as not to cause panic. This policy has over time exhausted itself due to the popularity of social networks [1] .
Butelis Arrest and Trials
On October 24, 2001, the main suspect in carrying out the bombings, Leonard Butelis (Gromov), was detained. A month later, the Prosecutor General's Office of Latvia charged Butelis with terrorism, intentional murder with aggravating circumstances, and the manufacture and storage of weapons and explosives. The security police said the most high-profile crime of 2000 was partially uncovered [1] .
In 2003, the Riga Regional Court found Butelis guilty of laying the second of the explosive devices and sentenced him to 8 years in prison with confiscation of property. The verdict was appealed to the Supreme Court , which found numerous violations in the decision of the court of first instance and sent the case for further investigation. As a result, Butelis was released on June 18, 2004, and in 2008 the case against him was finally dismissed [1] [4] [3] .
After 2004
An additional investigation was entrusted to the prosecutor's office, which sent him back to the Security Police, after which the case, divided into two - about the customers and the perpetrators of the crime - hung [4] . The statute of limitations for such cases in Latvia is 30 years; therefore, the investigation is still not closed, but the investigation for 2015 does not have suspects or other information [1] .
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Half the statute of limitations. 15 years of unexplained explosions in Centrs department store DELFI (August 17, 2015, 15:52). Date of treatment March 22, 2016. Archived February 1, 2016.
- ↑ Andrey Portnov (Telegraph). Terrorist attack in Centrs department store: the case is being returned to the police . DELFI (June 21, 2004 11:24). Date of treatment March 22, 2016. Archived March 22, 2016.
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 'Terorists Viktors', atriebība, necilvēcība - 15 gadi kopš universālveikala 'Centrs' spridzināšanas (Latvian) . DELFI (17. augusts 2015 11:50). Date of treatment March 22, 2016. Archived February 4, 2016.
- ↑ 1 2 3 Evgeny Pavlov (Telegraph). Seven years after the explosion of the Centrs department store . Pribalt.info (August 2007). Date of treatment March 22, 2016. Archived July 22, 2013.