Court refuses to detain Kandrotas-Celofanas who may have left for Belarus

Vilnius District Court on Thursday rejected a prosecutor’s request to detain Antanas Kandrotas-Celofanas, who is suspected of having left for Belarus, LRT reports.

Prosecutor Indrė Zubavičiūtė had asked the court to remand Kandrotas-Celofanas in custody in a case where he is accused of disturbing public order by assaulting a public figure, Valdas Bartkevičius, in a public place. The prosecutor argued that Kandrotas-Celofanas had violated a court-imposed restriction by possibly leaving the country without permission and noted that he had already been sentenced to a real prison term in another case.

Judge Ilona Mateikienė, who presided over the public order case, acknowledged that Kandrotas-Celofanas had breached his restriction by leaving Lithuania. However, she stated that he had continued to participate in court hearings remotely, adding: “He does not obstruct the judicial process or evade it. (…) The investigation in the case is proceeding without hindrance, and the court has not found grounds to change his preventive measure to detention. (…) Imposing the strictest preventive measure would be irrational.”

Kandrotas-Celofanas also remotely attended a court hearing on Monday in a separate criminal case, where he and Andrejus Lobovas were convicted of inciting hatred against former MP Tomas Vytautas Raskevičius based on his sexual orientation. Kandrotas-Celofanas is seeking acquittal in this case.

In June, an appellate court upheld a 15-month prison sentence for Kandrotas-Celofanas in a financial crime case. The ruling is final and must be enforced, though he had previously announced his departure to Belarus and has not been imprisoned.

Last September, Kandrotas-Celofanas received a four-year prison sentence for his role in the 2021 riots near the Seimas (parliament). This verdict is not yet final, as it is under appeal at Vilnius Regional Court.