MOSCOW, December 14. /TASS/. Russia’s Investigative Committee has brought charges in absentia against Lithuanian judges, who pronounced an unjust verdict against Russian citizens in a case concerning 1991 events in Vilnius, IC spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko told the media on Monday.

The IC says that on March 27, 2019 a panel of judges of the Vilnius Regional Court of the Lithuanian Republic Ainora Maceviciene, Virginia Tamosiunaite, and Arturas Sumskas "delivered a deliberately wrongful sentence" concerning more than 50 Russian citizens, including Yuri Mel and Gennady Ivanov, detained in the territory of Lithuania. They were found guilty of crimes against the Lithuanian state and war crimes during mass unrest in Vilnius in January 1991, when 13 civilians were killed and more than 700 others injured.

"Judges Maceviciene, Tamosiunaite and Sumskas were accused in absentia under part 2 of article 305 of the Russian Criminal Code for delivering a deliberately wrongful prison sentence against Russian citizens. The investigation has taken the necessary measures to put the accused on an international wanted list," Petrenko said.

She explained that at the moment when the sentence was pronounced the Lithuanian judges were well aware that the events in Vilnius took place at a time when the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic was an integral part of the Soviet Union.

"During the January 1991 events in Vilnius the Soviet military servicemen involved were performing their duties and acting in accordance with Soviet legislation in order to maintain public order," Petrenko said.