Kremlin intimidation of January 13 victims continues: defenders are defended with a blatant lie

The verdict announced last year, which received a lot of attention in both Lithuania and Russia, in the case of January 13 continues to fuel passions. Vilnius Regional Court in 2019 March 27 sentenced 67 people, including Yuri Mel, to be convicted of crimes against humanity and war crimes in January 1991. However, the case did not end, as 59 out of 67 convicts appealed , just like the victims and prosecutors.

J. Melis is the only person caught behind bars and serving a real prison sentence: he was arrested in 2014, crossing the border between Lithuania and Russia. Since then, Russia has not only kept silent about attempts to cover up Meli himself, but also to discredit the January 13 case, which was engulfed in conspiracy theories by the Kremlin and its propaganda spokesmen.

The lawyers of Yuri Melis, who was convicted in the case of January 13, have already tried several times to change the preventive measure applied to his defendant: arrest. However, even the last attempt ended in failure. Baltnews, one of the Kremlin’s spokesmen in the Baltic countries, reacted to this.

Gentle conditions desired

On Wednesday, the panel of judges of the Lithuanian Court of Appeal did not comply with the request of defense lawyer J. Melis convicted in the case of the January 13 incident, and in making such a decision, the panel of judges declared that J Melis had been convicted shortly after. he himself expressed in writing his desire to serve the custodial sentence that was imposed on him.

By acceding to the request, the convicted man began to serve the seven-year prison sentence imposed on him, although the judicial verdict has not entered into force.

“The request of the lawyers during the appeal process to commute the detention must be rejected, since the convicted Mrs. Melis is serving the custodial sentence of her own free will and is not detained in this regard,” says the panel of judges. The panel of judges also declared that the total length of prison of the convicted J. Melis did not violate the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Law and was reasonable and legal.

The convict was arrested and arrested in 2014. March 12 Therefore, taking into account the time that Melis spent in custody, his sentence should end in 2021. March 12, unless the court decides otherwise. Lithuanian prosecutors in the case demand an increase in the generalized custodial sentence imposed on the convicted person by another three years, although it initially demanded 16 years in prison and the convicted himself requests to be acquitted or commuted.

It is not the first time that these requests have been rejected as unfounded. Last December, Mel also attempted to commute the sentence or move her to an area where the sentence is being served by former public officials.

As then, this year J. Melis assured that he was not only a military man, but also an employee of the State Tax Inspectorate, so moving from the common area of ​​the Vilnius Penitentiary Center to the local area would avoid endangering his life and his Health.

However, neither then nor on Wednesday did the judges conclude that there was no threat to Mr. Mel’s life or health. Furthermore, Mr. Melis did not provide any evidence that he was a Lithuanian official, and Mr. Melis’s arrest was based on a reasonable expectation that, while at liberty, he would flee or hide in his homeland, where he was expected to be. extradited, as in other January 13. in the case of the convicted in the case, it is not worth waiting.

A devastating reaction from the Kremlin

Both Russian diplomats and the Russian Foreign Ministry have reacted sensitively to such court decisions on several occasions, and the Russian commission of inquiry has even brought a case against Lithuanian prosecutors. Kremlin spokesmen also contributed. After Wednesday’s decision, the baltnews.lt portal accused the Lithuanian Court of Appeal of masochism.

It is alleged that Mr. Melis executes the custodial sentence of his own free will and is a masochistic pretext, although it is Mr. Melis himself who has expressed in writing his desire to serve the custodial sentence imposed on him. Furthermore, Lithuania is accused of violating the rights of J. Melis and endangering his life; he has already received threats of physical retaliation.

In October, the same baltnews.lt threatened that “Lithuania will receive a strong response from Russia”, and the representative of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maria Zakharova, said that Lithuania, which approved the verdicts in the case of January 13 He was falsifying history and trying to settle accounts with Russia.

At that time, Andrei Kolesnik, a MP from the Kaliningrad region, began calling on Russia to take tougher measures to protect his citizen, whom Lithuania allegedly illegally imprisoned and tortured in solitary confinement.

According to baltnews.lt, whose article states that the Russian version is followed, in January 1991 Lithuania belonged to the Soviet Union and was not independent, although the Supreme Council of Lithuania, elected in free elections, declared independence on March 11, 1990.

Furthermore, according to baltnews.lt, the Soviet military units “carried out their functions in accordance with the law in force at the time to guarantee public order.” This is how the bloody events of January 1991 were described, when the Soviet army and internal security units tried to organize a coup in Lithuania: 14 people died and hundreds were injured in a few days. The night of January 12-13 was the most popular.

Killed with tanks and bullets

At that time, Soviet paratroopers, supported by special-purpose Alpha soldiers and armored vehicles, stormed the Lithuanian radio and television buildings and the Television Tower.

The latter was assigned by the then Lieutenant J. Melis, who commanded the crew of one of the four tanks of the T-72 (No. 544). He himself admitted that three shots were fired from the tank with empty cartridges, but he himself did not kill or injure anything.

In fact, the Vilnius Regional Court ruling emphasizes that the tank does not. 544, led by J. Melio, “breaking through the encirclement surrounding the television tower area on the west side and maneuvering dangerously among the civilians there, entered the area where he fired at least three times with a cannon with empty cartridges, launched smoke curtains “.

It is true that the testimony of the witnesses recorded that even the sound of empty projectiles caused serious injuries and contributed to the death of at least one victim: Rolandas Jankauskas.

“International humanitarian law prohibits a war attack, when one of the four T-72 tanks fired from a tank cannon with a knock-out cartridge and RJ fell to the ground in a wave of gunfire, it was crossed by dangerously tracked military equipment maneuvered in the television tower, causing the latter to be crushed between the hard beech objects, multiple fractures of the skull and other skeletal bones, ruptures of internal organs, acute bleeding in the abdominal and chest cavities, that is, the victim was killed intentionally ”, emphasizes the court ruling.

That night Juozas Olekas MEP, who was a doctor by profession, said that a total of about 700 people were wounded in the shooting. Furthermore, at least 3 of the 13 victims that night died under the tracks of the tanks, including Loreta Asanavičiūtė, who and her friend were crushed by tank no. 502, led by the commander of the regiment’s division, Nikolai Astachov.

However, even the execution of orders does not exempt from liability. As stated in the court order,
“The crimes charged to all the defendants in this case were considered crimes under international law.”

“The defendants, being the leaders and active members of the PCL / CPSU Central Committee and the soldiers of the USSR force structures who participated in the military attack, could and should have foreseen that they could be prosecuted and punished for crimes against humanity.

According to the Supreme Court of Lithuania, the law of the Supreme Court of Lithuania establishes that the execution of an order, even in the case of strict subordination relationships, does not exclude liability for crimes against humanity. ”The ruling also establishes that jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights, even an ordinary soldier in a difficult situation due to a political regime cannot blindly obey orders that flagrantly violate fundamental human rights.

The court’s ruling also made clear why the defense used by the defendants and Kremlin spokesmen in the January 13 case, that the military not only complied with orders but also believed they were complying with orders. legitimate Soviet authorities, was wrong and excused.

“While participating in the military operation, the defendants knew that they were contributing to the USSR and to the organization of its party, the CPSU, which aimed to overthrow the legitimate government of the Republic of Lithuania and restore Lithuania to its constitutional order.

The Chamber reaches this conclusion after analyzing the statements of the defendants that all the military took the oath in the USSR, therefore obeyed and complied only with the laws of the USSR and the orders and statements of the President of the USSR that Lithuania in 1991. It was part of the USSR in January, that is, one of the Republics of the Union, so no other laws other than trade union laws were in force on its territory.

Such statements by the accused and witnessed soldiers confirm that the latter knew and understood that when carrying out the policy of the USSR and its party organization – the CPSU and its branch in Lithuania (LCP / CPSU), to order and carry out carry out military attacks against civilians prohibited by international humanitarian law by committing assassinations, injuries and intimidation, commit crimes that, by their nature and consequences, are objectively part of a systematic and large-scale attack against civilians ”, the court ruled.

Kremlin conspiracy theories suggest that Soviet soldiers fired only imitation ammunition that night, although eyewitness testimonies, forensic documents, archival footage, and buildings show gunshot wounds, the use of real combat bullets, and markings on their towers. television and radios. buildings

Several dozen people have suffered particularly serious injuries and more than 500 people have suffered minor or minor injuries. On January 13, Soviet soldiers killed 13 people near a television tower and radio and television buildings, and another died a month later. At the time, an article on baltnews.lt claimed that “no one was killed by the actions of Soviet soldiers.”