Mareks Segliņš (born 4 July 1970 in

Aizpute Aizpute (german: Hasenpoth) is a town in western Latvia's South Kurzeme Municipality in the valley of the Tebra River, northeast of Liepāja. History The territory of modern Aizpute was inhabited by ancient Curonians since the 9th century. St. ...

Latvian SSR The Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic (Latvian SSR), also known as Soviet Latvia or simply Latvia, was a federated republic within the Soviet Union, and formally one of its 16 (later 15) constituent republics. The Latvian Soviet Socialist Rep ...

) is a Latvian politician of People's Party and a lawyer. He is the former

Minister of Justice of Latvia Minister may refer to: * Minister (Christianity), a Christian cleric ** Minister (Catholic Church) * Minister (government), a member of government who heads a ministry (government department) ** Minister without portfolio, a member of government w ...

, as well as former

Minister of the Interior of Latvia The Minister of the Interior of Latvia is a member of the Cabinet of Ministers of Latvia, and is the political leader of the Ministry of the Interior (Latvia), Ministry of the Interior of Latvia. Māris Kučinskis is the current minister since De ...

. He graduated from Faculty of Law of University of Latvia in 1993 and afterwards worked in prosecutor's office and court of Liepāja city. In 1994–1998 he worked in law office ''Pomerancis un Kreicis''. In 1998 he was elected to the 7th

Saeima The Saeima () is the parliament of the Latvia, Republic of Latvia. It is a unicameral parliament consisting of 100 members who are elected by proportional representation, with seats allocated to political parties which gain at least 5% of the po ...

and was interior minister firstly in Andris Šķēle's and later in Andris Bērziņš' cabinet in 1999–2002. He was elected to the 8th Saeima and was head of the parliamentarian Law committee, a position he retained after being re-elected to the 9th

, when he also became head of parliamentarian National security committee. In 2007 he became interior minister in Ivars Godmanis' cabinet. He was widely cited in newspapers on February 20, 2008, following a 34-year-old

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

man being jailed in

Riga Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the Ba ...

for

urinating Urination, also known as micturition, is the release of urine from the urinary bladder through the urethra to the outside of the body. It is the urinary system's form of excretion. It is also known medically as micturition, voiding, uresis, ...

on the historic Freedom Monument. Seglins described the British people who cause trouble in Latvia when inebriated, typically on weekends away for parties such as stag nights, as "

pig The pig (''Sus domesticus''), often called swine, hog, or domestic pig when distinguishing from other members of the genus '' Sus'', is an omnivorous, domesticated, even-toed, hoofed mammal. It is variously considered a subspecies of ''Sus s ...

s". He also said "These people think it is a tradition to defile our monument. They are pigs, those British. A piggy nation." Despite this, drunken individuals from multiple nations have urinated on the monument. In March 2009, Seglins became the minister of justice in

Valdis Dombrovskis Valdis Dombrovskis (born 5 August 1971) is a Latvian politician serving as Executive Vice President of the European Commission for An Economy that Works for People since 2019 and European Commissioner for Trade since 2020. He previously served ...

' cabinet. He stepped down in 2010, when his party left the cabinet.

References

"Tourist jailed for urinating on statue"
''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

''. 1970 births Living people People from Aizpute People's Party (Latvia) politicians Ministers of the Interior of Latvia Ministers of Justice of Latvia Deputies of the 7th Saeima Deputies of the 8th Saeima Deputies of the 9th Saeima University of Latvia alumni {{latvia-politician-stub