She noted that when he decided to become the editor-in-chief of the Russian edition of Sputnik Lithuania, he knew that he would be at the forefront of the information war, and he knew what was fraught with what he was doing.
Butina recalled the journalists who were or are still in prisons in the Baltics for their position. She also added that the choice of Marat Kasem to work in a hostile environment while retaining the citizenship of a country that hated him, at the risk of life and freedom to speak the truth, is much deeper than journalistic ethics or even freedom of the press in general. In her opinion, this is an existential question.
Marat Kasem fought for the truth and continues his fight even behind bars, and we are fighting for him, the parliamentarian said.
Marat Kasem is a citizen of Latvia, he has been living in Moscow for several years and works in the Rossiya Segodnya media group, which also includes Sputnik Lithuania. On December 30, the journalist arrived in Latvia for family reasons and was detained. On January 5, the Riga court took him into custody, Kasem was transferred to the city’s Central Prison.
Earlier, the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, Leonid Slutsky, promised that he would do everything to achieve the release from custody of Marat Kasem, editor-in-chief of Sputnik Lithuania, detained in Latvia.