Latvia trial
(First Edition)
The former Communist leader of Latvia, Alfred Rubiks, goes on trial here today charged with twice conspiring to return this Baltic republic to Soviet-style rule in 1991, AFP reports from Riga.
Mr Rubiks, 56, who has been in prison since the August 1991 coup attempt against the then Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev, faces the death penalty if the Supreme Court convicts him of having 'actively prevented the restoration of the independence of Latvia with the aid of the occupying forces'.
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