Girl could face jail for racial attack
Tuesday May 30 07:32 AEST

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 Monday.

"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.

People from the Baltic state, which regained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, "are not used to different-looking people, and fear of a stranger can sometimes grow into a racist attitude," he said.

But, he added: "Latvia is an EU country. It should understand that foreign students have to feel comfortable here, because they bring in both knowledge and big money to pay for their studies."

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=104059