RIGA, Latvia -- Six members of a Latvian ultra-nationalist group were sentenced to up to three years in prison Monday for bombing a Soviet-era monument in 1997.
The six men - aged 22 to 72 - belonged to Perkonkrusts, or Iron Cross, described by prosecutors as a tiny but dangerous paramilitary organization.
The group was accused of masterminding the 1997 bombing of the giant socialist-style monument - a concrete obelisk topped by the Soviet star and surrounded by statues of soldiers - built when Latvia was still ruled by Moscow to commemorate the Soviet role in defeating Nazi Germany during World War II.
The leader of the group, Valdis Raups, was inadvertently killed during the attack when the bomb exploded prematurely.
The monument itself wasn't seriously damaged, but the incident outraged many Soviet war veterans.
The six, who were arrested in late 1998, also were accused of planning to bomb the Riga headquarters of Latvenergo, the state-owned power utility, and the capital's central heating plant.
Igors Siskins, 40, Andris Ligeris, 23, Aldis Bisans, 22, and Eduards Kumpins, 22, were sentenced to three years in prison. Janis Tepluks, 59, received a two-year term, and Vilis Linins, 72, one-and-a-half years.
Three other defendants - Harijs Radzins, 31, Andris Kiploks, 29, and Janis Ligeris, 21, - also were convicted Monday of participating in the bombing, but they were released because they had already spent two years in jail awaiting trial.
All the defendants except Bisans and Kumpins pleaded innocent.
The court also ordered the nine men to pay a fine totaling of 21,000 lats ($36,000) to cover the mostly cosmetic damage to the monument.
It was not clear whether any appeals were planned.
Perkonkrusts had called for ridding Latvia of remnants of the Soviet occupation, saying this should include pressuring the country's ethnic Russians, many of whom immigrated to Latvia during Soviet rule, to leave the country.
Latvia and its two Baltic neighbors, Estonia and Lithuania, were annexed at the outbreak of World War II. They regained independence only in 1991 following the Soviet Union's collapse.