VILNIUS, June 1. /TASS/. Lithuanian prosecutors provided no evidence of espionage by opposition politician Algirdas Paleckis for Russia, the politician said in the Respublika newspaper article Tuesday.
"The prosecution has not presented the [intelligence] information, allegedly collected by me, to anyone. Apparently, it believes that I am not worth standing on ceremony with, and an abstract accusation is enough," Paleckis wrote.
According to the politician, the final indictment was as follows: he engaged in espionage under an order from an unidentified Russian spy, he planned to gather data on officials who investigated the 1991 January Events, as well as the health of Russian officer Yuri Mel, serving time in a Lithuanian prison, and ordered to another unidentified person to gather this information. Paleckis ironically proposed to amend the Criminal Code with an article of "intention to engage in an unidentified spy activity under the order of an unidentified spy."
According to the opposition politician, the Lithuanian prosecution officially admitted that his case contains no classified data, but still demanded that all hearings take place behind closed doors.
"Maybe the public has the right to know why their compatriot was held in prison [since 2018]?" the politician asked. During the court hearing, the prosecution demanded nine years in prison for Paleckis.
Paleckis did not admit guilt, and did not refuse to testify. He was under arrest from October 2018, and was released on April 6, 2020. Currently, he is subject to an intensive supervision regime: he must stay at home between 21:00 and 06:00, and must not leave Vilnius. He also has to constantly wear a tracking bracelet.
Citing the witnesses
Between 2004 and 2007, Paleckis served as a lawmaker, and, between 2007 and 2008, as the Deputy Mayor of Vilnius. In a 2010 interview, he doubted the official version of 1991 events, when 14 people died in clashes during the period of political ambiguity. He said in the interview, citing witnesses, that the bloodshed was provoked by power-hungry radicals, adding that "friendlies shot friendlies" during the Vilnius TV tower assault.
This remark became the pretext to open a criminal case over charges of "denial of Soviet aggression and occupation." Initially, Paleckis was acquitted, but later he was fined 3,000 euros. In 2014, the politician received the ‘World without Nazism’ human rights award.
The Russian embassy in Vilnius noted earlier that Lithuanian authorities, pretending to be defenders of human rights on the international level, violate those rights of their own people, including through the persecution of Paleckis under a contrived pretext.