Prosecutor seeks two-year prison term for Erika Švenčionienė

LRT reported that prosecutor Redas Savickas is seeking a two-year prison sentence for pro-Russian activist Erika Švenčionienė, accusing her of helping another state act against Lithuania.

Speaking in his closing statement at the Vilnius Regional Court on Friday, Savickas asked the court to find Švenčionienė guilty. He also sought a one-and-a-half-year prison sentence for Kazimieras Juraitis.

The prosecutor said the evidence was sufficient to prove that the defendants had committed the alleged criminal acts. He asked the court to convict Švenčionienė and Juraitis of helping another state act against Lithuania.

Švenčionienė is also accused of publicly approving international crimes and Soviet crimes, as well as denying or grossly diminishing them. The same charge has been brought against Valerijus Ivanov.

The next hearing is scheduled for October 12, when the court is expected to hear closing arguments from the defendants’ lawyers.

Accusations linked to trips to Belarus

The case involves members of the dissolved International Good Neighbourhood Forum association: Švenčionienė, Juraitis and Ivanov, the former leader of the pro-Soviet Jedinstvo organisation.

According to the prosecutor, Švenčionienė and Juraitis acted as part of a group to help Russian and Belarusian organisations operate against Lithuania. They travelled to Belarus in 2022, appeared on Belarusian and Russian media programmes, publicly supported the policies of the authoritarian states and denied the legitimacy of Lithuania’s parliament.

The prosecutor said Švenčionienė, as a representative of the International Good Neighbourhood Forum, and Juraitis also took part in forums organised by Belarusian and Russian institutions.

They are also accused in connection with their support for a referendum held in Belarus in 2022. The referendum allegedly approved the removal of the two-term limit for the president and the abolition of Belarus’s post-Soviet nuclear-neutrality status.

Švenčionienė is additionally accused of publicly approving international and Soviet crimes, denying them or grossly diminishing their significance. Investigators say she and Ivanov took part in a programme about the January 13 events in early 2023.

According to the prosecutor, Ivanov said during the programme that Soviet troops may not necessarily have been responsible for shooting and injuring Lithuanian citizens on January 13, 1991.

Court dissolved association founded by Algirdas Paleckis

In February 2023, the Vilnius Regional District Court ordered the dissolution of the International Good Neighbourhood Forum after finding that it had acted against Lithuania’s interests and spread false information about allegedly unlawful election results in Lithuania.

The court also found that the association’s activities contradicted its stated aims and that its purpose was to act against Lithuania. The association was dissolved in part because of public statements by its head, Švenčionienė, which authorities said belittled Lithuania, criticised the country’s membership of the European Union, claimed that elections in Lithuania were invalid and denied the occupation.

One of the association’s founders was Algirdas Paleckis, who is serving a prison sentence for preparing to spy for Russia.