A man was yesterday convicted of killing his “best friend” by stabbing him at a block of flats in Menzieshill.
He had initially been tried for the murder of the dad-of-five — who Minakovskis said had been his friend since childhood.
Minakovskis showed no emotion when the verdict was announced today and kept his head bowed in the dock at all times until he was led into custody.
Judge Lord Uist told him: “You have been convicted by the jury of the culpable homicide of another man by stabbing him three times with a knife.
“This conviction will result in a custodial prison sentence.”
Mr Upenieks’s wife Jolanta — who has now returned to live in Latvia — said her husband would be missed.
Speaking to the Tele through an interpreter at the court, she said: “I trust the court of Scotland to make the right decision. They have looked at everything in detail.
“All I would like to say is that the kids are going to really miss their father.”
Mr Upenieks’s mother, Aija Brice Berga, 64, said: “Aigars is from a place called Jelgava and joined the army in Latvia and also became a prison guard. He had met his wife and he was starting a family.
“With regards to what has happened here I don’t want to talk about this with anger or rage.
“The world is full of anger and wars.
“To blame somebody from my side, to say that this person is guilty of this, is not in my character.
“I trust in what has been going on. I believe in the High Court of Scotland to have made the right decision.
“We don’t have this same kind of practice in Latvia, it is nothing like here.
“As for Aigars, I have my own opinions on what happened, but I believe it was decided by a high power, or by God, that he wasn’t supposed to live anymore.
“But it is very, very painful for him to have gone to the other world before me.
“Life goes on but there will always be a little gap in my heart now.”
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