Hate speech must be punished severely in all its forms - president

RIGA - Hate speech in all its forms must be punished severely, Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics stressed in an interview on the Latvian public television today.

Asked what the situation is with the awareness of Latvian law enforcement authorities about hate speech and verbal attacks, he said that it is quite sad. Unfortunately, he admitted, this awareness is improving slowly.

Rinkevics stressed that the recent judgment of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), which found a violation of the prohibition of discrimination in relation to the homophobic attack on Riga Stradins University (RSU) lecturer Deniss Hanovs in 2021, is a signal to our law enforcement authorities and courts that these cases should be taken seriously.

He said that this ECHR judgment can still be appealed, it is up to the government. In his view, however, there should be less fighting in the courts and more sorting things out at home. "Because it is a signal that there are things to work on", he said.

As reported, the ECHR has ordered the Latvian state to pay Hanovs EUR 10,000 in compensation for the violation.

Hanovs was attacked in 2021 when he was walking with his spouse through the Kengarags market in the evening. Two aggressive men started calling Hanovs and his partner names, hit Hanovs on the back, made sexual remarks and attempted to assault him, but the victim took refuge in a flower shop.

During the investigation of the incident, one of the assailants, whom the police managed to identify, admitted that his actions were motivated by his dislike of homosexual people and that he wanted to ensure that they did not show their sexual orientation any more. The State Police had initially opened a criminal case, but later dropped it and instead opened an administrative offence.

The ECHR concluded that the administrative offence proceedings in this case did not provide either just satisfaction to the applicant or adequate punishment to the perpetrator.