Men who tortured a swan sentenced to probation supervision in Latvia
A Riga court approved a plea deal for two Uzbek nationals who tortured and abducted a swan near Carnikava in March, sentencing both to probation and a four-year ban on keeping animals.
The Riga City Court has approved a plea agreement between the prosecutor and two Uzbek nationals, Akbar Abdikhakimov and Bekhruz Sharipov, over the torture of a swan. According to the Court Administration, the court based its decision on the fact that neither man had a prior criminal record.
The court also weighed that both defendants fully admitted guilt, expressed remorse, and acknowledged the wrongfulness of their actions. A State Probation Service assessment concluded that both men could serve their sentence in the community rather than in custody. Based on these factors, the court concluded the men were unlikely to reoffend.
Both men were sentenced to probation supervision for three years and 11 months and banned from keeping any species of animal for four years.
What happened
According to the charges, on March 30 last year the two men lured a swan out of the water using food near the Gauja River in Carnikava. One of the men grabbed the bird by its wings, laid it on the ground, broke its neck and struck it in the head with his fist. Once the swan stopped resisting, the second man held open a black garbage bag into which the bird was placed, and the two carried it to a car, putting it in the trunk before driving away.
The case came to light after residents reported the incident to the Ādaži municipal police, noting that the cruelty toward the swan took place in front of three minors. Police detained the men, born in 1984 and 1993, who said at the time they had been celebrating the end of Lent and taken the swan for fun, later releasing it by the roadside near Riga.
