Filipavičius asks Supreme Court to review his case

Gediminas Filipavičius, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for kidnapping a young girl and sexually assaulting women, has asked Lithuania’s Supreme Court to review his sentence and reopen his case, LRT reported.

The Supreme Court has received his request, court spokesperson Tautvilė Merkevičiūtė told the ELTA news agency. Because the case is not public, she said, the issues raised in the request would not be disclosed. The court will announce its decision once it has been made.

On 24 April, Kaunas District Court found Filipavičius guilty of raping two women, sexually assaulting them, forcing them to have sex, unlawfully depriving them of their liberty and committing other crimes. It also convicted him of causing minor bodily harm and possessing narcotic or psychotropic substances without intent to distribute them.

The court combined the sentence with the one previously imposed in the girl’s kidnapping case, leaving Filipavičius with a total prison term of 20 years. The latest sentence did not extend his time in prison. He did not appeal either the April verdict or the earlier verdict in the kidnapping case.

The two women were held in garages in 2023. The court ordered Filipavičius to pay one woman 7,000 euros in non-pecuniary damages and the other 15,000 euros. In the kidnapping case, he was ordered to pay the girl 70,000 euros and each of her parents 15,000 euros. The total compensation awarded across both cases is 122,000 euros.

In January 2024, Filipavičius kidnapped the girl as she was heading to a shop in Kaunas. She was taken from a public transport stop on 7 January and found two days later in a garage on Technikos Street. Police found her after reviewing video footage, questioning witnesses and gathering other information.