Russian Investigators Lay Charges Against Lithuanian Judges Over Verdict in 1991 Unrest

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 14th December, 2020) The Russian Investigative Committee has brought charges in absentia against Lithuanian judges who sustained sentences against over 50 Russians over their alleged role in the 1991 protests in Vilnius, the committee's spokeswoman, Svetlana Petrenko, said on Monday.

According to Russia's investigative committee, in March 2019, the judicial panel of the Vilnius Regional Court delivered designedly wrongful verdict against over 50 Russian citizens, who were found guilty of conducting military crimes in January 1991, when Vilinus was rocked by unrest over the independence declaration.

"Charges against judges Maceviciene, Pakalnyte-Tamosiunaite and Shumskas were leveled in absentia under Part 2 of Article 305 of the Russian Criminal Code over their designedly wrongful verdict to sentence Russian citizens to imprisonment," Petrenko told reporters.

Effort is being made to start international search for the accused persons, the spokeswoman added.

"The Lithuanian judges were well aware that the events in Vilnius, in which the Russian citizens were accused of participating in, enfolded in the period when the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic was not an independent state and was part of the Soviet Union. During the January 1991 events in Vilnius, Soviet servicemen fulfilled their duties and acted in accordance with the Soviet legislation to protect public order," Petrenko explained.