Lithuanian basketball fans clashed with the Spanish police

As the BNS reported some fans of Lithuanian basketball team suffered right before the match of Lithuania and France in Madrid. Fans of the Lithuanian team and the police officers pushed each other near entrance to the arena on Monday night.One of the Lithuanian fans suffered during the incident, he was taken to the police commissariat with handcuffs and beat-in head. As the agency informed  according to primary data, the incident arose when one of Lithuanian fans tried to bring Lithuanian flag with long handle into the arena. Guards of the Spanish arena forbade that and they tried to solve the problem by cutting the flag, Lithuanians resisted it. Additional force came for suppression of the indignant Lithuanians, they started beating Lithuanians with rubber sticks.According to the report, Lithuanian women also got several beats of the officers.

However, the Lithuanian Ambassador confirmed that both, Lithuanians and the Madrid police are presenting the different sides to the same story.Some of the Lithuanian basketball fans gathered in the front of the Spanish embassy in Vilnius to protest against detention of on the most known Lithuanian basketball fan Sekla, at the incident scene.  The Lithuanian might face a penalty of 1.000 Euro or even more serious concequencies.

As the BNS reported according to the information available to the ambassador, observation cameras are installed in the incident location, so it will not be difficult to find out the truth. On Tuesday, Spanish court will decide how to punish the fan detained, diplomats of Lithuanian embassy to Spain will also attend the hearings.Lithuania’s attaché in Spain Mindaugas Gabrenas informed BNS that Balaisis detained by the police is accused of resisting to the police officer and will probably be implied a fine. “A stepped-up trial will take place this morning, I will also go to it and I also will be the interpreter in the process. A lawyer has been appointed for the Lithuanian, we expect to finish it today,” Gabrenas told BNS.

In his words, more Lithuanians experienced troubles during the incident on Monday.

“They all feel hurt morally, but I myself saw two people who suffered physically: lightly injured detainee and one girl. We went to a hospital with her yesterday at midnight, she asked for medical examination, today we have plans to apply to the police because of bodily injuries,” the diplomat said. In his words, there are different versions of the incident. “The media says one, the fans another, the police has the third version and all the versions are different. As far as I understood, the incident arose because of a try to bring in a flag with stem, even though it is forbidden to bring such things into arena. The police tried to take off the stem, the flag kind of was torn, I cannot say it exactly because I did not see the flag. Then the conflict arose and spread into other locations of the arena. Additional police forces were brought, the most aggressive our fans were dispersed and calmed down,” Gabrenas said.Still, the Lithuanian team won the match against French with a result 88:73 and has no losses in the European Championship