The organizer of the murder of the priest rushes to freedom: I am the only one sitting, although I did not kill anything

He believed in not killing anything and begged for mercy

Offenders sentenced to life imprisonment take the opportunity provided to request the commutation of the maximum sentence to a prison sentence. This means that, with the consent of the court, a prison sentence of 5 to 20 years can be imposed. The hope of release is granted only in exceptional cases in which the offender has already spent at least 20 years in prison for the rest of his life and shows by his conduct that he has been repaired and is worthy of that grace.

Through the mediation of the Pravieniškės Correctional Center, where V. Beleckas is incarcerated by the administration, consideration of the imposition of a lesser punishment was started this week in the Kaunas Regional Court. This is V. Beleck’s second attempt to escape to freedom, and this offer was rejected last year.

Last year, it emerged that Mr. Beleck had been promoted 12 times for good behavior, but he was far from being an exemplary prisoner: he had violated internal rules 10 times and had been fined 5 times. For the storage of prohibited items for prisoners, he was transferred to a cell for 7 days and, after being caught consuming alcohol, was sent off duty to manage the territory of the correctional center.

Another characteristic of the convict is that he had previously left his job in a laundry and had refused other paid work.

“I committed a terrible crime, but I am the only one sitting, although I did not kill anything. The crime is cruel, I am very sorry and I will be persecuted for my whole life. You do not know what it means to be called a murderous priest all your life. Have mercy on me! “, the scandalous Kaunas resident petitioned the court last year.

Declared removal to the judge

A year later, when the request for commutation was repeated, the court hearing, in which V. Beleck himself participated from a distance, ended unexpectedly.

His lawyer, lawyer Diana Višinskienė, announced his dismissal to the chairman of the panel of judges Evaldas Gražis. According to the defense attorney, this judge was a member of the panel that rejected the request last year, so a preconceived notion may have been formed regarding V. Beleck.

Beleck, who attended the hearing remotely, said only a few words that supported the defense attorney’s position.

The lawyer said that the essential circumstances had not changed during the year: V. Beleckas was imprisoned until the end of his life and was not working at this time, and the civil claim was not covered.

The expulsion was not supported by the representative of the Prosecutor’s Office present at the hearing. He stressed that this decision of the Kaunas Regional Court had been appealed to the Court of Appeal, but the appeal was rejected and confirmed. According to the prosecutor, this testifies that the decision was made objectively and correctly.

On Friday, the Kaunas Regional Court reported that the judge had not resigned, so the prison submission would be reviewed by a panel of judges of the same composition.

He left the house offering to buy an antique sofa.

63-year-old priest, collector and poet R. Mikutavičius was lured out of his apartment in Laisvės Alley, right next to the main police station, on the night of June 30, 1998.

It was later revealed that this was done by his acquaintance V. Beleck, who had planned a heinous crime and offered to go inspect the vintage sofas that were supposedly for sale.

After going to a rented apartment in Panemunė district, R. Mikutavičius was stunned and strangled, V. Beleckas’s accomplices: Ivanas Kvaskovas, Artūras Daškovskis and Valdas Puodžiūnas participated in this execution. The assassins placed the body of the cleric in the trunk of the car, took him to the Nemunas, wrapped him in a metal net and threw him into the water. It was later established that R. Mikutavičius was still alive at that time.

From R. Mikutavičius’s apartment, criminals stole his accumulated collection – many works of art, the value of which at that time amounted to about 5 million. LTL.

After the disappearance of the priest R. Mikutavičius without knowledge, in the apartment where he lived due to the lack of a rich collection of works of art, it became clear that the disappearances of the man and the expensive collection are directly related.

At first, there was no talk of the darkest setting. There were even rumors in Kaunas that the priest R. Mikutavičius had secretly gone abroad. This was tried to justify the dissenting of the popular priest with the hierarchs of the church.

At the Vilnius market: a medal from the priest’s collection

A great advance to explain what really happened to the priest R. Mikutavičius was achieved thanks to the famous collector and journalist of the country Vilius Kavaliauskas.

After visiting Tauras Hill, where collectors traditionally meet on weekends, V. Kavaliauskas received an unknown offer to purchase several orders. He later said that after inspecting one of them and immediately realizing that the Order of Gediminas of the third degree belonged to R. Mikutavičius. It was presented to the priest by the then president of the country, Algirdas Brazauskas.

On the same day, V. Kavaliauskas informed Mečius Laurinkas, the then head of the Department of State Security, about the proposed acquisition of the order, and the officers began to play the puzzle of a heinous crime.
It was learned that the priest’s prize had already been sold for $ 400 and who gave it to the seller was the nephew of V. Beleckas of Kaunas.

Until that moment, law enforcement officials suspected that V. Beleckas may have contributed to the disappearance of R. Mikutavičius and the theft of his collection, he was arrested, but released without evidence. After the connection between the sold order, which was awarded to R. Mikutavičius and V. Beleck, was established, he was soon arrested.

Name changed

Born into a Soviet and Lithuanian family in the Soviet Army, V. Beleckas had a different name and surname. In the proletarian and poor district of Lower Šančiai, he grew up called Vladimir Stupakov.

During the Soviet era, the residents of Kaunas were interested in antiques, they got involved in the semi-underground world of collectors and began to trade with them, accumulating a lot of capital at the time.

In 1983, Stupakov was arrested on suspicion of stealing a gem and sentenced to five years in prison. After serving part of his sentence, he was released and re-immersed in the world of merchant art treasures, and after becoming Vlad Belec, he became even more cautious. V. Beleckas married Ona Daujotienė from Kaunas, who is much older than her, whom he divorced after some time.

There is data that true collectors avoided V. Beleck, considering him only a reseller of securities, including objects of unknown origin. A little later, V. Beleckas himself mentioned to the media that his clients included not only the priest R. Mikutavičius, but also representatives of the criminal world.

He was initially buried as an unrecognized drowned man.

The body of priest R. Mikutavičius was removed from the Nemunas just over two weeks after his assassination, on July 15, 1998.

The body that had been in the water for so long had changed drastically, making it quite difficult to determine the personality. At first, they were thought to be the remains of Iliodor Popov, nickname representing the group “Doctors” from Kaunas, who disappeared without a trace. However, these assumptions were disproved by the mob wife, who examined the body.

Due to ungrateful circumstances, unexpected failure of the morgue refrigerator and forensic expert who found that the deceased was much younger, 30 to 50 years old, when R. Mikutavičius was 63 years old, an unidentified body was immediately buried in the neighborhood from the Karmėlava cemetery, where unidentified people rest.

When new circumstances became apparent, in the spring of 1999, the remains were immediately exhumed and recognized. R. Mikutavičius reclined in the most prestigious place in Kaunas – the pantheon of the Petrašiūnai cemetery, he was given a place near the grave of the poet Salomėja Nėris.

Gang members have different destinies

During the search of V. Beleckas and the home of his relatives, law enforcement officers managed to find a large part of the paintings stolen from R. Mikutavičius’s apartment.

On September 11, 2000, the Vilnius Regional Court delivered a verdict in a famous case. V. Beleckas was found guilty of organizing the murder of a priest and was sentenced to the most severe punishment: life imprisonment.

During the trial, Beleck claimed that he did not want to kill the priest, only robbed him and blamed his accomplices.

Members of V. Beleck’s group, the trio who grew up in the orphanage and were tempted by the solid honor promised, received slightly milder punishments. Valdas Puodžiūnas was sentenced by the court to 13 years, Artūras Daškovskis to 19 years and Ivan Kvaskovas to 20 years.

The convicts tried to appeal the verdict, but the appeal was dismissed. Shortly afterward, I. Kvaskovas committed suicide at the Alytus Correctional Center. V. Puodžiūnas and A. Daškovskis served their sentences and were released.

He got stuck with the doctors from the “Doctor” gang

After the conviction of the murderers of R. Mikutavičius, the story of this crime did not end there. In 2001, law enforcement officers received information that O. Daujotienė, R. Beleck’s ex-wife, was looking for buyers in Germany for several paintings from the collection of a kidnapped priest.

Following the international operation, O. Daujotienė was arrested and the daughter, who lived in Germany with her husband, was detained when the official pretended to be an alleged buyer. It turned out that attempts were made to sell not only the paintings belonging to R. Mikutavičius, but also those seized by another collector, former lawyer Gediminas Damalakas.

The officers also detained Virginijus Silvestravičius, a member of the Daktarai – Virgelis gang, who had assisted O. Daujotienė at the time and was an influential figure in the shadow world of Kaunas. Another representative of the Doctors, named Egidijus Abarius, one of the leaders of the gang, “Goga” hid from the police for a while, and then came to the prosecutor’s office himself.

However, the entire company avoided incarceration. The Kaunas Regional Court sentenced O. Daujotienė, accused of illegally acquiring paintings, to one year and one month in prison. Since the Kaunas resident had been detained for so long, it was claimed that she had already served her sentence.

Two representatives of the Daktaras gang, E. Ebarius, “Goga” and V. Silvestravičius, “Virgelis”, who helped O. Daujotienė, also escaped from prison. and 7.5 thousand. fines in the amount of LTL. The largest, 25 thousand. A fine of LTL 1 million was imposed on Edmundas Burda, a Kaunas resident known to O. Daujotienė and V. Beleck, who transported the paintings to Germany.

At present, not all works of art belonging to R. Mikutavičius have been found, some paintings are still being searched.