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Lithuania asking Russia for meeting with man detained on charges of espionage

"The arrested man is accused of espionage but we don’t comment on these facts," Lithuanian Foreign Minister said

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius EPA/STEPHANIE LECOCQ

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius

© EPA/STEPHANIE LECOCQ

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Russian court sanctions arrest of suspected Lithuanian spy

RIGA, May 21. /TASS/. Lithuania has sent a request to Moscow to allow diplomats' meeting with the Lithuanian citizen Arstidas Tamosaitis who was detained in Moscow earlier in the week on suspicions of involvement in espionage, Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius said on Thursday answering a question from TASS.

He indicated that the Lithuanian side could not offer any comments on the situation around Tamosaitis yet.

"We are aware of the arrest of a Lithuanian national and we’d like to meet with him, after which we’ll have more information," Linkevicius said. "The meeting will take place after the Russian institutes supervising the matter permit it."

"As far as I know, we’ve asked the Russian Federation for an opportunity to meet with our citizen but our request hasn’t been answered yet," he said. "Still I hope it will be entertained and the meeting will take place."

"The arrested man is accused of espionage but we don’t comment on these facts," Linkevicius indicated.

The Center for Public Relations of the Russian federal security service FSB said a Lithuanian citizen who is an officer of a deep-cover intelligence force was caught on May 19 as he was receiving confidential documents from a Russian citizen.

The detained person was taken to the FSB reception office where he gave confessionary evidence, telling the operatives he was an office of Department No. 2 of the Lithuanian Defence Ministry’s operative services, which stands for military intelligence.

Tomasaitis was then taken to the Lefortovo custody center in Moscow.

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Lithuania Espionage

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