EUR 2,000 offered to criminal for hurling Molotov cocktail at Occupation Museum

RIGA - The arsonist who attacked the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia was offered EUR 2,000 to commit the crime - now he and one of his accomplices have pleaded guilty, while the person who ordered the crime has refused to accept the charges, the Prosecutor's Office informed LETA.

The Prosecutor's Office, without mentioning the names of the persons, said that the prosecutor in charge has sent to the court a criminal case in which three persons are accused of setting fire to the Occupation Museum earlier this year as part of an organized group.

According to the indictment, in early 2024, one of the accused, while serving a prison sentence in Daugavgriva Prison, persuaded his acquaintance Vitalijs Lukjanovs, during a telephone conversation, to find a person who would break a window of a building and throw a bottle with incendiary material into it, in exchange for USD 4,500.

Lukjanovs then found a Valentins Razmerics, who agreed to carry out the arson attack for EUR 2,000.

During further communication, the person who ordered the attack, through Lukjanovs, informed the arsonist that it was the Occupation Museum that was to be set on fire and, through another person, transferred the money to commit the crime.

The two defendants arrived in Riga and produced a bottle of incendiary material. They then went to the Old Town around midnight, where the arsonist used a homemade hammer to break the glass of the ground floor window of the Occupation Museum building and threw the Molotov cocktail inside the building, causing a fire of approximately 0.5 square meters.

By their actions, the defendants destroyed and damaged more than EUR 10 000 worth of property belonging to the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia.

All three defendants are currently in detention. The intermediary and the executor were only detained a few days after the arson incident and were remanded in custody, while the organizer continues to serve his previous prison sentence.

All the accused have previous convictions.

The intermediary and the executor have pleaded guilty to the charges against them and are remorseful, while the organizer, who is in prison, has refused to comment on the charges.

The offense carries a penalty of up to ten years in prison with or without probation supervision for up to three years.

As reported, on the night of February 27, 2024, a Molotov cocktail was thrown into the office of the director of the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia.

Following the incident, the State Police opened criminal proceedings for the intentional destruction or damage of foreign property, if committed by arson or in another generally dangerous manner. Such an offense is punishable by up to ten years in prison.

Three persons were subsequently arrested in this criminal case: a Latvian citizen who had previously been in police custody for drug-related offenses, an Olaine resident who had previously been tried for property offenses, and another Olaine resident who had also previously been in police custody. In early March, the court remanded all three detainees in custody as a precautionary measure.