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On 24 September at 23.15, officers of the Riga Municipal Police Video Surveillance Centre observed a man setting fire to a paper package on the Freedom Monument. Information about the incident was passed on to a nearby law enforcement patrol.

The offender was smoking a cigarette in slow motion and watched the flames engulf the entire pack, but when he noticed the law enforcement officers, he suddenly dropped the cigarette and ran away. After sprinting for a few dozen metres, the officers caught up with him and took him back to the scene.

The offender showed his frustration at what had happened. At times he also substituted his explanations with an outburst of foul language. He did not answer questions as to why he had carried out the specific actions and what exactly had been burnt.

The man was fined a minimum of EUR 1 000 for showing blatant disrespect to the Freedom Monument. After the procedural steps had been taken, the man was allowed to go home.

However, about two hours later, the same man was spotted by law enforcement officers through the eye of a camera at a nearby restaurant. Following the man's activities, they noticed that he was heading back in the direction of the Freedom Monument. On the way, he stopped in front of the city's "RIGA" decoration, where he tried to overturn each of its letters, but without success. When he came to the letter "I", the man found that he could move it. The person crawling on it also managed to knock it over.

It should be noted that as the decoration fell, it also caught the man's head. The information was passed on to nearby police officers, who stopped the offender a few hundred metres away.

The officers noticed that the offender had suffered a bleeding wound to the head during the act of hooliganism. The Emergency Medical Service was called to the scene. The man was taken to hospital after medical examination.

An administrative offence for petty hooliganism has been initiated in connection with the man's actions.

Source on youtube: Iereibis huligāns zaudē cīņā ar zīmi Rīga