Latvian Court Convicts Communist in Failed Coup : Justice: Ex-leader of party sentenced to eight years for backing attempt to overthrow Gorbachev.

Former Latvian Communist Party boss Alfreds P. Rubiks was convicted Thursday of attempting to overthrow the independent Latvian government four years ago and was sentenced to eight years in prison.

With the verdict, the Supreme Court in the Latvian capital, Riga, becomes the first in the former Soviet Union to convict a supporter of the 1991 hard-line coup that failed to oust former Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev.

Eleven of the 12 coup plotters who were tried in Moscow either had the cases against them dropped or received amnesty by the Russian Parliament last year. The 12th coup plotter, Gen. Valentin I. Varennikov, rejected the amnesty and was acquitted by a Russian court a year ago. Last week, Varennikov won nearly $15,000 in compensatory damages for his lost wages and legal costs.

Rubiks was not accused of plotting the coup, but as soon as Russia’s State Emergency Committee announced that it had seized power, Rubiks publicly announced his support for the junta and issued a list of pro-independence Latvian politicians he believed should be arrested. When the coup failed four days later, Rubiks was arrested instead.

Though the Latvian Communist Party first secretary has spent the past four years in jail, his popularity among die-hard pro-Soviet nationalists has not faded. In 1993, he was elected from prison to a seat in the Latvian Parliament.

Fellow lawmakers later revoked his mandate, but he is still seen as the standard-bearer of the Russian minority population in Latvia and is the leading candidate on the Socialist Party ticket for parliamentary elections slated for Sept. 30. However, as a convicted criminal and former Communist Party member, Rubiks would be barred by law from assuming office.

Supporters charge that Rubiks, 60, is being used as a scapegoat by Latvians seeking revenge for the 51-year Soviet occupation of their homeland, a nation of 2.7 million.

Rubiks’ supporters thronged the sidewalk outside the courtroom Thursday holding signs and shouting, “Freedom for Rubiks!” As the court session began, Rubiks yelled at reporters, “Where have you been for the last four years? Next time, you’ll be the ones in court.”

Rubiks, who had faced as many as 15 years in prison, will have to serve only four in addition to the four years he has already served. Another defendant, Ojars Potreki, a former vice chief in the Latvian Communist Party, was also found guilty of sedition and given a three-year suspended sentence. Judges said Potreki had been more cooperative than Rubiks.

As his sentence was read, Rubiks screamed, “This is not a sentence. This is the beginning of a new repression.” Police then forcibly removed him from the courtroom.

Rubiks’ lawyers called the ruling “untenable,” implying that they intend to appeal.

Filips Stroganov, co-chairman of the Socialist Party, called the proceedings against Rubiks “a show trial” with preordained verdicts.

“This wasn’t a court case against Rubiks but against the previous system,” Stroganov said. “This was the settling of accounts with a political opponent.”

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When the coup failed in 1991, Rubiks was described as the most hated man in Latvia. But political passions have in large part been superseded by economic preoccupations in the four years since. Rubiks’ trial has lasted two years.

“We’ve made a martyr of him by dragging the trial out,” agreed Visvaldis Brinkmanis of the right-wing Fatherland and Freedom Party. “He got what he deserved, but he should have gotten it sooner.”

The three Baltic republics have vowed to prosecute the perpetrators of what they consider Soviet war crimes, but Latvia has been the most vigorous--in part because it has the most complete Soviet archives.

As it became clear that the August, 1991, coup would fail and that Baltic independence would prevail, KGB offices in the region, including those in Estonia and Lithuania, tried desperately to destroy documents.

The officials under Rubiks, however, apparently more confident of victory, misjudged the political situation. Pro-independence forces tried to keep the KGB office in Riga from burning its records by plugging up the building’s chimneys, and many incriminating documents were preserved.

Times special correspondent Michael Tarm in Tallinn, Estonia, contributed to this report.