RIGA, Latvia (AFP) -- A Latvian court this week overturned bans on a controversial march of veterans from the Baltic state who fought on Nazi Germany's side in World War II as well as a counter-demonstration.

"The court has approved the requests from Daugavas Vanagi and the Anti-Fascist Committee, thereby ruling against the city's decision," Ksenija Novikova, an official at the Riga tribunal, told AFP.

The court would release the grounds for its last-minute ruling later this month, she said.

Citing security concerns, Riga city hall banned the annual March 16 memorial parade by Latvian Legion veterans, as well a protest rally.

The nationalist group Daugavas Vanagi and its Anti-Fascist Committee opponents then went to court.

Bans have been imposed and flouted in the past, with heavy policing in the heart of the capital keeping both sides apart.

The Legion arouses passions in Latvia, which joined the European Union in 2004.

Moscow and some in Latvia's ethnic-Russian community see the parade as glorifying Nazism because the Legion was commanded by war-time Germany's elite Waffen SS.

Veterans insist they were not Nazis themselves but simply took sides to defend their Baltic nation of 2.2 million.

The Soviet Union had seized Latvia in 1940 under a pact with the Nazis, and deported 15,000 people to Siberia.

The pact broke down in 1941 when Germany invaded Soviet territory.

German troops were hailed by some Latvians as liberators. But they brought their own terror, killing 70,000 of Latvia's 85,000 Jews, helped by local collaborators.

The Soviets rolled back the Nazis from 1944, heralding a crackdown lasting into the 1950s.

Approximately 146,000 Latvians fought in the Legion, including volunteers and draftees. Roughly a third died in combat or Soviet captivity.

Another 130,000 fought for the Soviets; 36,000 died, many in battles with their Legion compatriots.

Latvia remained a Soviet republic until the communist bloc crumbled in 1991.

In 1998, Latvian lawmakers made March 16 a Legion memorial day, marking a 1944 battle.

After international criticism, they struck it from the official calendar in 2000, but the veterans still rally.