Journalist attacked in downtown Riga

RIGA - A crime reporter was beaten up Jan. 12 outside a café in central Riga as a revenge for articles he published in one of the country's biggest dailies.

Two men approached Ivars Abolins of Neatkariga Rita Avize in the café and asked him to confirm his name and where he worked, which he did. The journalist did not think much of it, but when he stepped out he was beaten to the ground by the same two men.

"Before the attack they told me several of their friends had gone to prison for something I'd written in the paper," he said.

Abolins was taken to hospital with concussion and bruises to the head and body. Doctors had to use several stitches on his head.

"I have never been attacked or threatened before for anything I have written. Now I'm not so sure there won't be more attacks," Abolins said.

State police spokesman Krists Leiskalns said he believes it won't take long for the police to find the attackers, since they mentioned who the reporter had allegedly sent to prison with his articles.

None of Abolins' belongings were taken.

Aldis Berzins, the editor of Neatkariga Rita Avize, said it was an attack on the principle of the freedom of speech, and he hoped the police would exhaust all efforts to find the culprits.

"Punishment for physical attacks on reporters should be regarded as equal to attacks on ministers, MPs, prosecutors and other state officials. In all these cases the whole of society is threatened, not only the individual," he said.

Last year another Latvian journalist working for a local paper, Gundars Matiss, was attacked with a metal pipe and beaten to death in front of his house in the western port of Liepaja. In this case, however, police do not suspect it had anything to do with Matiss' line of work.