Linards Grantiņš (born 1950) is a Latvian former

human rights Human rights are universally recognized Morality, moral principles or Social norm, norms that establish standards of human behavior and are often protected by both Municipal law, national and international laws. These rights are considered ...

activist who was among the founders of the Latvian human rights activist group Helsinki-86 in 1986. He later established the hate site Tautastribunals.eu ( Latvian for "People's Tribunal.eu") in 2006, which regularly accuses and issues "verdicts" of

capital punishment Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence (law), sentence ordering that an offender b ...

to self-identified "traitors of the Latvian state". He was arrested in 2015 for inciting national, ethnic and racial hatred.

Biography

Grantiņš was born in

Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...

, where his family was deported to by the Soviet regime in 1949. Grantiņš returned to Soviet-occupied Latvia in 1956. In 1986, while working as an

amber Amber is fossilized tree resin. Examples of it have been appreciated for its color and natural beauty since the Neolithic times, and worked as a gemstone since antiquity."Amber" (2004). In Maxine N. Lurie and Marc Mappen (eds.) ''Encyclopedia ...

craftsman in

Liepāja Liepāja () (formerly: Libau) is a Administrative divisions of Latvia, state city in western Latvia, located on the Baltic Sea. It is the largest city in the Courland region and the third-largest in the country after Riga and Daugavpils. It is an ...

, he co-founded Helsinki-86 and helped to organize the first commemoration of the victims of the June 1941 Soviet deportations since the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

at Riga's Freedom Monument in 1987, filming the events and sending the tape outside the USSR. He was then arrested by Soviet authorities and later allowed to go into exile to

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

in 1987. From there, he supported other activists of the Third Latvian National Awakening by supplying them with audio, and video recording equipment scarcely available in the USSR. After the restoration of the independence of Latvia, he returned from abroad, although he later moved back. In 1996, Grantiņš was awarded the

Order of the Three Stars Order of the Three Stars () is the highest civilian order awarded for meritorious service to Latvia. It was established in 1924 in remembrance of the founding of Latvia. Its motto is ''Per aspera ad astra'', meaning "Through hardships towards the ...

. In 2013, MP Valērijs Agešins asked to initiate criminal proceedings against Grantiņš for making veiled threats against him on his website, but the request was refused.

References

20th-century Latvian people 1950 births Living people People from Siberia Latvian dissidents {{Latvia-bio-stub