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A Theory on Harvard Law School Alumnus Leonid Rozhetskin's Disappearance in Jurmala (near Riga) Latvia : Kidnapping

By Andis Kaulins

Criminal law was always the most interesting of all legal studies, so that detective stories always catch our attention.

We posted on the Rozhetskin case previously here and after reading the most recent news accounts worldwide, we have a theory about the case, for which we initially developed an interest only because Rozhetskin disappeared from Jurmala, a great Latvian beach and villa resort on the Baltic Sea which we have ourselves visited and liked immensely, and so we thought it was a shame that this wonderful leisure and recreation area near Riga was now burdened with this kind of negative notoriety.

Image of Jurmala, Latvia (near Riga) linked from Riga-Life.com
The key to the case in our opinion is Rozhetskin's private jet, whose movements are recorded by the Daily Mail.

Why would the private jet have left Latvia without Rozhetskin? There occurs to us an obvious if speculative theory that Rozhetskin could have been kidnapped and thus might be being held for ransom. The pilots of the plane then could theoretically have received instructions to obtain the ransom money in cash, which would account for the flight to Switzerland. Many scenarios can then be imagined as to why the plane had to fly elsewhere and we are not going to speculate on that, since we have no information of any kind about the case other than what we read in the newspapers.

Indeed, the relative paucity of information being provided by the police and other authorities would support our kidnapping theory, since this blanket of silence would in such a case, if true, be trying to protect Rozhetskin's life.

In any case, we hope for a happy end to the case and for a future world in Eastern Europe which accords with Russian President-elect Dmitry Medvedev's vision for Russia of a society guided by the rule of law, abiding by modern concepts of law, especially the court litigation of grievances, rather than the outdated strongarm methods of a past primitive era, out of which Russia, the Baltic and Eastern Europe are slowly emerging.

Full post as published by LawPundit on March 30, 2008 (boomark / email).