After spending two weeks locked up in a Latvian jail for insulting and stamping on the Latvian national flag, Miguel Ángel López (photo, right) and Edén Galván (photo, left), said that they were "very happy to be back on Spanish soil and anxious to go home" after arriving at Málaga airport at 8.50pm yesterday evening.

The two youths were arrested in Riga along with five other Portuguese students on the 16th May and accused of trying to steal and desecrating a Latvian flag, an offence that carries a maximum jail sentence of six years.

López (25) from Cartaya (Huelva) and Galván (24) from Telde (Gran Canaria) were allowed to leave Latvia after they were released on bail, but will have to return to Riga to face trial in the autumn.

Both men have admitted to trying to steal the flag as a souvenir, but deny any intention to cause offence.

The decision to allow the students to return came after the personal intervention of Spanish Foreign Affairs minister, Miguel Angel Moratinos, who broke the news of their imminent return personally to their concerned mothers.