A new ST judge is needed because the term of office of judge Artūras Kučas, who continues his career as a judge of the European Court of Human Rights, ended on September 2.
The Saeima will still have to decide on the approval of Juris as a ST judge.
The LETA archive shows that Juriss was one of the prosecutors in the case of Ventspils mayor Aivars Lembergs. This spring, the former mayor of Ventspils, current member of the Ventspils council Lembergs (“For Latvia and Ventspils”) appealed the verdict of the Riga Regional Court, which sentenced him to four years in prison and confiscation of property.
In 2022, Latvijas Radio reported that Juriss was one of the potential candidates approached by the President for the position of Director of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, but there was no consensus among politicians about his suitability for this position.
In 2020, Juris ran for the position of Prosecutor General, which Juris Stukāns won. As evidenced by the information available to the LETA agency, in the vote of the Council of Justice on the candidates for the post of Prosecutor General, Juriss got the next largest support after Stukān.