RIGA, April 30 (LETA) - The Administrative District Court has turned down Ikskile Region Council Chairman Indulis Trapins' (Latvian Green Party) request that environmental protection and regional development minister's decree suspending Trapins from his job be put on hold.

According to the court's summary judgment, the court found, after reviewing materials in the case, that Environmental Protection and Regional Development Minister Arturs Toms Pless' (For Development/For) was legitimate. The court also said, however, that a different judgment could be issued after the case is reviewed on the merits.

Trapins has 14 days to appeal the court judgement.

As reported, Pless has signed an order on the dismissal of Trapins about various violations that have been identified in the work of council, Pless told a press conference earlier this month.

Experts of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development have been gathering information on various violations committed by Trapins for several months, said Pless.

"The decision is based on a series of violations, where the risks of corruption, illegal mishandling of municipal property, exceeding municipal powers, as well as arbitrary and one-person decision-making, which has been contrary to the public interest, prevail," the minister said.

He added that the ministry had received explanations from Trapins, but no rebuttal of the violations had been provided. "No head of any municipality, Trapins included, is a tsar or a monarch, and it is forbidden to make unilateral decisions that are within the competence of the regional council," the minister added.

The violations found shed light on the systemic behavior of Trapins and indicate his incompatibility with the position. The order applies only to the chairman of the regional council, therefore the council will have to elect a new chairman from among the elected deputies.