Lithuanian court sentences Švenčionienė to 1.5 years of restricted freedom for denying Soviet crimes

Vilnius Regional Court has sentenced Erika Švenčionienė to one and a half years of restricted freedom for publicly denying Soviet crimes, the BNS news agency reports.

The court partially upheld an appeal by prosecutor Šarūnas Šimonis, amending a February 26 ruling by Vilnius District Court. The new sentence requires Švenčionienė to serve 18 months under restricted freedom without intensive supervision, as announced by Julita Dabulskytė-Raizgienė, chair of the judicial panel.

Švenčionienė must also remain employed or registered with the Employment Service for the duration of her sentence and immediately remove a Facebook post that led to the criminal case. The post, published in July 2024 on the 33rd anniversary of the Medininkai massacre, contained a coarse denial of the 1991 Soviet aggression against Lithuania. For this, she was initially fined €3,750 by the district court.

The prosecutor had sought a harsher penalty of 18 months of restricted freedom with electronic monitoring, a ban on visiting the Medininkai massacre memorial, and a €1,000 payment to the Victims of Crime Fund. Švenčionienė’s defence had argued for the case to be dismissed, claiming no one was harmed by her statement.