Latvian girl could face 10 years' jail for attack on Sri Lankans

RIGA: A 17-year-old girl from Latvia could face up to 10 years in prison for allegedly launching a racially motivated attack on two Sri Lankan students, police in the Baltic state said.

"We are seeking to open criminal prosecution for racial assault," police spokeswoman Kristine Apse-Krumina said. A conviction for racial assault carries a prison sentence of up to 10 years.

The charges which police are seeking to bring against the girl are related to an assault in January on a 25-year-old student from Sri Lanka and his sister. They were insulted and beaten up as they came out of a shop in Riga.

The girl suspected of having carried out the attack is believed to be connected to a radical youth skinhead group.

The Latvian authorities, including the Foreign Ministry, have voiced fears that racially motivated attacks are on the rise in the Baltic state, targeting a tiny community of several hundred Africans and Asians, mostly students.

"We are very careful, because we understand that we look different and it can provoke racial attacks," Yasantha Kodithuwakku, a Sri Lankan medical student, told AFP.

Latvia, Tuesday, AFP