RIGA (Reuters) - A British man was sentenced to five days' detention on Tuesday for urinating on one of Latvia's most treasured monuments and one of the country's ministers called such people "pigs".

A court official said the man, who denied the charges, would serve his detention in a police cell after being found guilty of urinating on the Freedom Monument.

Erected in 1935, the monument is a 42-metre (138 ft) high symbol of the Baltic state's resistance to foreign rule, which has included 50 years of Soviet occupation.

Latvian state-owned news agency LETA quoted Interior Minister Maris Seglins as saying: "These English people are pigs ... One filthy bunch of pigs."

People detained for acts of disrespect in the past have been fined. One man wearing a kilt uncovered his genitals at the monument last year.