• Security Police jointly with the State Police have detained four skinheads who allegedly have attacked two Roma girls and two Armenians
• Riga Regional Court has postponed the hearing of Andris Jordans’s case
• Several ethnic minority NGOs appealed to the President of Latvia, the government and the Saeima

The Security Police jointly with the State Police have detained four skinheads who allegedly have attacked two Roma girls and two Armenians. As reported, two 13-year-old girls were attacked allegedly by a group of skinheads in Riga in October. As later became known, the same group of skinheads later on the same day have attacked on Armenian man and woman. Four skinheads were detained on 25 February. The attackers are 17 to 21 years old. The Police have initiated a criminal proceeding on incitement to ethnic or racial hatred. Chas, Vesti Segodnya, Telegraf, Diena, NRA

Yesterday, the Riga Regional Court has postponed the hearing of Andris Jordans’s case because Jordan’s lawyer has refused to represent him in this case. Andris Jordans is charged with incitement to ethnic hatred. As reported, at a public discussion in February 2007, Andris Jordans has stated that Jews and Roma people are ‘non-humans’ and it would be preferable to exterminate them. Chas, Vesti Segodnya, Diena

Several ethnic minority NGOs have sent an appeal to the President of Latvia, the government and the Saeima asking to ratify the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages and to withdraw the reservations made to the Framework Convention for Protection of National Minorities. Chas