Lithuanian activist Antanas Kandrotas-Celofanas travelled to Belarus without court permission
Antanas Kandrotas-Celofanas, a Lithuanian activist convicted in connection with riots near the parliament and accused of assaulting a public figure, has travelled to Minsk for what he claims are business purposes—despite an active court-ordered travel restriction, LRT reports.
Kandrotas-Celofanas confirmed to news outlet Delfi that he is in Belarus but denied violating his court-imposed obligation not to leave Lithuania, framing it as a “matter of trust” that he would not flee or obstruct legal proceedings. Lithuanian courts, however, state they received no request from him to travel abroad.
“The Vilnius Regional Court has not received any requests—neither from the convicted individual nor from his defence attorney,” said Lina Nemeikaitė, a court spokesperson. The restriction remains in force until his sentence becomes final.
His lawyer, Erikas Rugienius, told LRT he had no knowledge of his client’s whereabouts and had been unable to contact him. Attempts by LRT to reach Kandrotas-Celofanas by phone also failed.
Kandrotas-Celofanas faces two ongoing cases: the riot trial, where a Vilnius court is preparing its verdict, and a separate assault case involving public figure Valdas Bartkevičius, which began last week. Prosecutors have stated that enforcement of travel restrictions falls under the court’s jurisdiction, not theirs.
In a video shared by Aleksej Stefanov—a pro-Kremlin propagandist who fled Latvia for Belarus—Kandrotas-Celofanas said he was in Minsk “for the second time this year” to address “serious matters.” Stefanov claimed Kandrotas-Celofanas intended to relocate to Belarus permanently and expected a prison sentence of at least six years in Lithuania.
Kandrotas-Celofanas previously gained notoriety as one of the figures in Lithuania’s 2021 protests near the Seimas (parliament), which escalated into clashes with police. His current legal troubles stem from those events and the alleged assault on Bartkevičius.