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After examining the criminal case of him and Deimantas Bertauskas, the Šiauliai Regional Court announced on Tuesday that A. Paleckis, 50, would be sentenced to six years in prison.
Part Paleckis has already done part of it, for over 17 months, when he was detained during this pre-trial investigation.
Paleckis’ accomplice, D. Bertauskas, was acquitted by the court because the man not only admitted to spying on Russia, but also helped expose the very serious crime committed.
Although the former SLF leader has been sentenced to prison, he will not lose his freedom for the time being, as this sentence can still be appealed to the Lithuanian Court of Appeal.
There is no doubt that A. Paleckis, who never admitted guilt, will exercise this right.
He presented the book that he began to write in prison.
Paleckis, who appeared in court with his supporters long before the sentence was announced, gave interviews to journalists and his recently published book “Handcuffs for Thought,” which he began writing “so as not to be sad while sitting behind bars.” .
“The first part of this book are diaries that reflect the authentic prison atmosphere. The next part of the book deals with the methods used by the pedophile to create this case. The third part is my correspondence with relatives that I could not meet and even call them for half a year. We only communicate by letters. There is also humor in the book, I share my philosophy of life, I review the relations between the countries, ”says A. Paleckis, who presented the work to journalists.
Asked before the verdict what he expected from the court, A. Paleckis replied: “I hope objectivity. I don’t know what the sentence will be, there are all kinds of miracles in Lithuania. I spent 17 months behind bars. It is quite rare and, to put it mildly, strange, because there is a presumption of innocence. “
He received not only 6 thousand euros
The verdict stated that A.Paleckis and D.Bertauskas, carrying out Russian intelligence tasks for a monetary reward, free visas for Russia, providing space to live there, promise to help establish contacts with the leaders of the “Jedinaja Rosija” party and help start a business from February 2017 From October 16 to 10, 2018, he was spying in Lithuania.
According to the file. Russian investigators were interested in the possibility of falsifying the health documents of Yuri Mel, a Russian citizen arrested in the January 13 case, to demand a more lenient detention measure. Paleckis also received a list of judges, prosecutors and other officials who had investigated the case on January 13 and asked to know where they lived.
During the next meeting, A. Paleckis received another list of such Lithuanian officials and six thousand euros, which he shared with D. Bertauskas. Realizing that such a task was not possible based solely on public sources, it was decided to seek helpers.
The information collected had to be transmitted upon arrival in Russia. According to the data of the case, A. Paleckis took conspiracies, demanded “personal hygiene” from D. Bertauskas: he asked not to mention surnames when talking about important things, not to mention surnames. An e-mail box “karavankrabov” (crab caravan) was created for the transmission of information in Belarus.
It had no negative consequences for Lithuania.
The sentencing judge said the data collected in the case had become evidence of his crime. According to the judge, the details of the case were also corroborated by the constant testimonies of D. Bertauskas, who had no reason to speak to himself or to another person.
Although the person who assigned the task to A. Peleckis and D. Bertauskas has not been identified, depending on the nature of the task, it can be stated that he is a former Russian intelligence officer.
Espionage is punishable by between 3 and 15 years in prison. According to the judge, when A. Paleckis was sentenced to a sentence lower than the average provided for in the sanction, the fact that the information collected by A. Paleckis was not classified as a secret of the Republic of Lithuania was taken into account. and the task was not performed and therefore did not cause negative consequences.
The convict assaulted the prosecutor
A. Paleckis calmly agreed that they would send him to prison again, only a sarcastic smile appeared on his lips.
After the verdict was announced, journalist Vilma Vidugirienė, who was supported by the state prosecutor’s office and asked how the court verdict was evaluated, said she would like to know the court’s motives before evaluating it.
After a long conversation with journalists, the prosecutor lost, she was immediately attacked by A. Paleckis, who asked her how she felt covering the pedophile.
The prosecutor, who was unwilling to participate in the discussion, rushed out of the courtroom.
The verdict will not only be legally appealed
A. Paleckis, who remained in the courtroom with only his lawyer, told reporters that the judge had only read the prosecutor’s speech.
“There is a question of objectivity and independence of the court. And the prosecutor’s speech is based exclusively on the testimony of the pedophile D. Bertauskas. The following follows: D.Bertauskas accused of pedophilia gossiping about me, then the prosecutor writes it in the indictment , which becomes a judicial decision.
We will appeal the sentence not only legally but also internationally. Many people are already meeting in Lithuania who do not understand what is happening here. The Penal Code states that the person who collected the information was spying. And did you hear during the trial that I assumed you were going to plan? Just an unidentified scout gave me an assignment.
At the time of writing the book on January 13, he had information and knew the names of the prosecutors investigating him. Where is the information I collected about them? No data collected with me was found.
The judge ruled that Mr. Bertauskas’s testimony was consistent and not mine. Everything is different. Arrested D.Bertauskas says that he did not spy, after a week he already confesses, then he changed his testimony again. Where is the consistency here? D.Bertauskas gave such testimonies when he was imprisoned, and the officials “worked” with him, “A. Paleckis explained to journalists after the sentence.
He was punished for child pornography
D.Bertauskas attended the court hearing accompanied by two armed masked officials. D.Bertauskas did not remove the black mask that covered his face in the courtroom.
In fact, D. Bertauskas was prosecuted on August 6, 2018 for having pornographic content representing children. It was established that D.Bertauskas uploaded 6 electronic files with child pornography to his email account.
This crime is punishable by a fine or a prison term of up to four years. On April 4 of this year, the court approved a criminal order, for which Mr. Bertauskas was fined 5,000 euros for this crime.
He called to prayer a jumble of nonsense
A. Paleckis’s lawyer, Adomas Liutvinskas, repeated the words of his defendant that the sentence was only an accusation that had been transferred to him.
“The officials put pressure on Mr. Bertauskas and they got what they wanted. And, in fact, no one collected, collected or transmitted that information.
If it was not possible to identify who requested the collection of the information, how can you know that it is a Russian explorer?
This verdict is nonsense, a joviality that I have not seen in my 36-year career as a lawyer. For me, it is very similar to the decision of the police state court, ”the lawyer told reporters who questioned him.
He also denied guilt during the pre-trial investigation.
A. Paleckis explained both during the pre-trial investigation and during the trial of the case that he did not collect any data on either the prosecutors investigating the January 13 case or the judges who examined it.
All the police material found on him during the search is nothing more than excerpts from a book he just published.
“The penal code clearly states that the person who collected the information for foreign intelligence was spying. Therefore, there had to be some specific data collected among my belongings, my media, such as information about the telephone numbers of the prosecutor or judges, addresses of home and something else.
That is not the case, it is not registered and would have passed the information on to someone. All the accusations of the Prosecutor’s Office are based solely on the wording: “Paleckis intended to do it, Paleckis intended to do so, he handed it over to an unidentified person,” A. Paleckis told the lrytas.lt portal.
The former head of the SLF said that all the complaints against him were based solely on the testimonies of D. Bertauskas, which he allegedly made while rescuing his fur to avoid accusations in a case of pedophilia, since during the search photos of exploited children were found sexually. On your computer.
The prosecution claims otherwise. According to her, A. Paleckis together with D.Bertauskas not only met, but also visited Russia, kept in constant contact with Mikhail Golovatov, former head of the KGB special purpose unit “Alpha” and accused of the case of 13 from January. , live, by email and phone, and with Eduard Kruglov, former officer of the Alpha unit.
According to the Prosecutor’s Office, it was these individuals who organized meetings for A. Paleckis and D. Bertauskas with some Russian politicians and people particularly interested in the case of January 13.
“These circumstances were established not only by the defendants’ own statements, but also by detailed material on the timing of the visits, the mode of travel, the places of residence, the people with whom the defendants interacted, as well as the records search, documents “, – said the prosecutor Vilma Vidugirienė, who supported the state prosecution in the case, during her final speech in court.
According to the prosecutor, the case contains conversations of the accused, in which A. Paleckis warns D. Bertauskas to be alert when he goes to Russia, because his activities are criminal and threatened with prison, and expressly said that they help another state to Act. against Lithuania.
According to data from the Attorney General’s Office, A. Paleckis worked for a foreign state from February 2017 until his arrest in October 2018.
Together with Bertauskas, he interacted with a Russian intelligence officer and several Russian citizens who were very interested in everything related to the case of January 13, where investigating officers and investigating judges live, with whom they communicate, do friends, as allowed. weather.
According to prosecutors, A. Paleckis and D. Bertauskas also passed information on J. Mel’s case to Russian intelligence officers and tried to get him out of jail; A doctor was sought to write a certificate for the money that J. Mel was seriously ill and therefore could not be held behind bars.
Prosecutors say A. Paleckis and D. Bertauskas were rewarded not only with money for their work.
They were promised help to establish contacts with representatives of the Russian political parties, as well as they were promised to find businessmen who would finance the activities of two parties: the SLF and the Lithuanian People’s Party (LLP).
As a result, several people from these parties were interviewed in the case, including SLF members Andrejus Gorbatenkovas, Pavel Ževžikovas, Leonas Minkevičius, Giedrius Grabauskas, Birutė Dilpšienė, and LLP members Artūras Šidlauskas and Vaidas Prunckus.
Some of their houses were also registered in 2018-2019.
