08 June 2004 06:51
Latvian court to consider appeal by elderly Russian against genocide conviction
Riga, 8 June: Latvia's Supreme Court today is considering an appeal lodged by Nikolay Larionov, 83, former
employee of the Ministry of State Security of the USSR. Last year he was found guilty of the genocide of the Latvian
people and sentenced to five years in a high-security prison.
Larionov was charged with genocide since he had taken part in the deportation of 504 people in 1949. He drew up the
lists of "kulaks" and the "enemies of the people" being deported. I tried to avoid the work, but it
was hopeless since I knew for certain that if I did not carry out the order, I would be severely punished,"
Larionov said during the trial.
The defence said that according to international definitions, deportations themselves were not acts of genocide.
After 1991 in Latvia four former security officers were convicted, including the post-war minister of state security
of the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic, Alfons Noviks. He was convicted, received a life sentence and died in prison.
Well-known partisan Vasiliy Kononov was convicted of war crimes. There are currently dozens more lawsuits at the
prosecutor's office.
[ITAR-TASS news agency] |
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