RIGA, November 3. / TASS /. The Russian Union of Latvia (RSL) has appealed to international organizations to defend freedom of speech in the Baltic republic and local journalist Yuri Alekseev, who was sentenced to 14 months in prison, the political force said in a statement on Tuesday.

“We have begun to act to draw the attention of the world community to the violation of freedom of speech in our country, expressed in the first instance of a sentence of 14 months in prison to journalist Yuri Alekseev,” reports RSL on its page in Europe. Facebook…

“We are also starting to collect signatures under the collective appeal of the MEPs to the Latvian authorities with a demand to stop the persecution of Alekseev’s journalistic activities, covered by a court case sewn with white threads,” the political force notes.

On October 29, the Pardaugava court of Riga sentenced Alekseev to a year and two months in prison, as the prosecutor demanded. The Latvian Prosecutor’s Office brought charges against Alekseev on three grounds: incitement to ethnic hatred, illegal possession of ammunition and distribution of child pornography.

In December 2017, the State Security Service (SGB) of Latvia announced the arrest of Alekseev and the initiation of a criminal case against him in connection with the publication of comments, inciting ethnic hatred. The special services conducted several searches at his house, during one of them they found cartridges for a pistol. In addition, according to the State Security Service, materials containing child pornography were found on the seized media. Alekseev himself had previously denied all accusations against him and said that he considered the criminal case initiated against him to be fabricated.