UCSJ: Violent Latvian Neo-Nazi Group wins court case

Reply-To: [email protected]
Sender: [email protected]
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Date: Thu, 18 Jan 2001 19:18:56 +0200 (EET)
Message-Id: <[email protected]>
Subject: UCSJ: Violent Latvian Neo-Nazi Group wins court case

From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>

Original sender: Felix Corley <[email protected]>

UCSJ: Violent Latvian Neo-Nazi Group wins court case


Union of Councils for Soviet Jews
For Immediate Release: January 17, 2001
Contact: Nickolai Butkevich (202) 775-9770 x107
 
VIOLENT LATVIAN NEO-NAZI GROUP WINS COURT CASE
Perkonkrust Members Will Not Have to Pay Damages for Bombing
 
Washington, DC--Yesterday, the Supreme Court of Latvia granted a major
victory to members of the banned Latvian neo-Nazi group Perkonkrust
("Thunder-Cross"), according to Michael Avrutin, the director of the
Baltic-American Bureau on Human Rights and the Rule of Law of the
Union of Councils for Soviet Jews (UCSJ).
 
The Riga Regional Court in May 2000 sentenced Perkonkrust members to
varying prison terms, ranging from suspended sentences to three years
in prison, for their bomb attack on a Soviet war memorial in 1997. 
However, in yesterday's decision, the Supreme Court reduced the
sentences for several of the defendants and released one of them in
the court room.  In addition, the court ruled that the Perkonkrust
members will not have to pay $32,000 to the Riga city council for
damages to the memorial, and that one of the accused can sue the city
for damages because of his "unlawful imprisonment."
 
In December 1997, Perkonkrust circulated a flyer decorated with a
swastika, calling for an ethnically pure Latvian state, the
deportation of Russians and Jews (referred to as "racially defective
degenerates") from Latvia, and the overthrow of the Latvian
government.
 
"We are very disappointed in the Supreme Court's ruling, which could
be interpreted as a signal of official tolerance for violent
nationalistic groups," said Micah H. Naftalin, UCSJ's national
director.  "The court's decision undermines the intent of the Latvian
government, which banned this extremely dangerous group and called for
harsher sentences than even the lower court was willing to give out."
 
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Nickolai Butkevich
Research and Advocacy Director
Union of Councils for Soviet Jews
1819 H. St. NW, Suite 230
Washington, DC 20006
Telephone: (202) 775-9770 x107
Fax: (202) 775-9776
[email protected]
http://www.fsumonitor.com

-- 
==============================================================
MINELRES - a forum for discussion on minorities in Central&Eastern
Europe

Submissions: [email protected]  
Subscription/inquiries: [email protected] 
List archive: http://www.riga.lv/minelres/archive.htm
==============================================================