The death of a young Latvian homosexual, burned by his clothes sprayed with gasoline and inflamed, was at the center of a controversy on Thursday April 29, associations denouncing a homophobic attack, while the police, accused of inaction, did not did not rule out suicide following threats.
Read also: In China, the homosexual community tries to assert itself by dancing
Normunds Kindzulis, 29, a caregiver, whose body was 85% burned on April 23, died on Wednesday from his injuries. He had received homophobic death threats and had moved from Riga to Tukums, a quiet town 70 km west of the capital, according to the press. But in Tukums, he is also the target of homophobic behavior and has been physically attacked four times. The local police did not rule out the possibility of suicide because of the threats he received.
"
Bringing someone to the brink of suicide is also a crime,
" Latvian criminal police number two Andrejs Grishins told reporters on Thursday. The case sparked a national debate on homophobia in Latvia, a member country of the European Union which amended its constitution in 2006 to specifically ban same-sex marriages. President Egils Levits, a former judge of the European Court of Justice, said there was "
no room for hatred in Latvia
". Local police initially refused to open an investigation, explaining that there was no "
evidence
" that a crime had been committed.
But after the death of Normunds Kindzulis, the police are required by law to open a criminal investigation. A separate investigation into the alleged inaction of the Tukums police who failed to investigate the threats against the victim was also opened. The colleague and roommate of the victim Artis Jaunklavins, who is still hospitalized, told the Delfi news website that he had discovered him "
burning like a torch
" outside their home. "
I tried to put out the flames, I carried him and put him in the bathtub, but the burns were too severe, his toasted clothes embedded in the skin,
" he added.
