Supreme Court upholds conviction over fatal karfentanil injection

Lithuania’s Supreme Court has upheld Egidijus Liekis’ conviction for distributing drugs and causing a person’s death through negligence, LRT reported.

The court found that Liekis injected karfentanil belonging to him into a person who had asked for the drug.

According to the case file, Liekis illegally obtained an undetermined amount of karfentanil and brought it to a passage tunnel in Klaipėda on March 30, 2024. That evening, he injected the drug into the crooks of the person’s arms using a syringe. The person was heavily intoxicated and suffered acute poisoning before dying.

The Klaipėda District Court acquitted Liekis on May 15, 2025. However, after considering a prosecutor’s appeal, the Klaipėda Regional Court found that the lower court had improperly assessed the evidence.

The Supreme Court’s panel said Liekis was also rightly convicted of causing death through negligence. Based on his personal characteristics and life experience, he understood that his actions could endanger another person’s health or life, even though he did not foresee that the drug injection would result in death.

The court also considered Liekis’ testimony and the fact that both he and a witness had warned the person against using drugs while intoxicated.

The case established that Liekis injected the drug into the person twice at the person’s request while using karfentanil himself. The court said his own experience should have enabled him to foresee that a second injection was dangerous and could result in death.