Viktors Birze, an anti-gay activist and right-wing politician in Latvia, will be prosecuted by Latvian authorities for violence that was aimed at the people who tried to hold a gay pride observation last year in the capitol city of Riga.

The Riga regional prosecutor's office said that Birze and one of his supporters, Valdis Rosans, will be prosecuted for hooliganism in a group, causing bodily injuries and damage of property, and showing resistance to law enforcement authorities. Under the Latvian Penal Law, such crimes carry a sentence of up to seven years in jail. On July 22 2006, anti-gay activists calling themselves the "No Pride" movement attacked members of Latvian and foreign gay and lesbian organizations at several venues of the gay pride festival in Riga. They threw tomatoes, eggs and excrements at participants of the gay festival.

During two recent trips to Latvia Redmond's Pastor Ken Hutcherson met with some of the activists involved in the "No Pride" counter-demonstrations last year. It's not clear if he met with Birze or Rosans. Birze heads a small ultra-right nationalist party called National Force Union. Most of those Hutcherson met with during his visit are associated with a different party, LPP (First Party of Latvia). During one of the meetings, however, Alexei Ledyaev, the Riga pastor who served as Hutcherson's host, emphasized the need for anti-gay groups in Latvia to join forces:

He said the efforts by different religious and nonprofit organizations should be unified. There is a need of mass educational work explaining people the danger they are facing.

[Update:] Gay.com UK offers its report on the prosecution under the headline "Anti-gay yob faces Latvian court". Now we have a better idea of what a "yob" is.

Birze told Agence France-Presse at last year's gay pride event, "Homosexuals are dirty sinners. They are immoral people, and they don't have a place in normal society."