Lituanica

The Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus gave an interview to the Swedish National Radio SR.

As the BNS noted a suspect in Medininkai border checkpoint murder case, Konstantin Nikulin, will be extradited to Lithuania.

This decision was made by Latvia’s Supreme Court, which dismissed Nikulin’s request to not be extradited to Lithuania.

Nimkulin should be given over to Lithuanian law enforcement over a period of three weeks.

As the BNS informed and this blog remained the suspect was detained by Latvian law-enforcement officers on Nov. 28 of last year, based on the European warrant for his arrest issued by Lithuania.

Latvia’s Prosecutor General’s Office had agreed to extradite the detained former OMON Special Purpose Police Squad hit man and one of the suspects in a case of manslaughter in Medininkai border checkpoint of eastern Lithuania, 40-year-old Konstantin Nikulin.

The BNS writes that the suspect in this 17 year-old case concerning the killing of seven Lithuanian officers and injuring of one, had appealed to Latvia’s Supreme Court regarding the decision to extradite him to Lithuania, therefore he remained in Latvia until the court reached its final verdict.

Nikulin, together with three other suspects, also ex-members of OMON - Aleksandr Ryzhov, Andrej Laktionov and Ceslav Mlynik - was wanted as suspect in a murder case.

The latter three suspects are Russian citizens, who reside there and are as of yet not accessible to Lithuania’s law enforcers.

After Latvia extradites Nikulin to Lithuania, the prosecution process can be started in Lithuania. According to Lithuania’s legislation, Nikulin will face life in prison for first-degree murder of more than two persons.

The Prosecutor General’s Office has been investigating one of the cruellest crimes committed in Lithuania — the massacre of the Medininkai checkpoint staff — for 17 years.

The BNS reminds that the pre-trial investigation has established that the first 7 police and customs officers of the independent Lithuania were killed and the sole survivor Tomas Šernas was grievously wounded as a result of doing their duty.

Stationed on duty on July 31, 1991, the men died of headshots from Kalashnikov assault rifles.  The data collected in the process of the pre-trial investigation allow the prosecutors to suspect that hit men of the former Soviet Union’s militia special operations unit OMON did the crime from Riga, who were visiting the OMON base in Vilnius on July 30, 1991.

Another group of militia from Riga’s OMON set off an explosive device at the headquarters of the 42nd division of the Soviet Union on L.Sapiegos Street in Vilnius on the very same night.

At the time of the investigation, the larger part of the rifles seized from the victims have been found.

The investigation of the manslaughter at Medininkai checkpoint is aggravated by the fact that the suspects and a lot of important witnesses reside in Russia.

The seven officers were believed to have been killed in Medininkai to cause confusion at the customs of the country that had just declared its independence. At that time, OMON hit men would quite often assault checkpoints and beat up officers stationed there.

Lithuanians were forced to act peacefully by the political circumstances of the time, and the culprits did not receive an adequate response.

There is available information that Medininkai check-point was chosen for the uncanny crime with personal revenge motives.

The BNS reminds that on the morning of July 31st of 1991, killers, who as of yet haven’t been tried, murdered border guards Antanas Musteikis, Stanislovas Orlavičius, Aras SWAT unit officers Algimantas Juozakas and Mindaugas Balavakas, road police employees Juozas Janonis and Algirdas Kazlauskas with shots to the head.

Police officer who experienced heavy injuries during the attack, Ricardas Rabavičius, died in the hospital Aug. 2nd. The sole officer who survived the attack was Tomas Šernas, who also experienced heavy injuries at the time of the attack.

As the BNS reported the Latvian Prosecutor General’s Office agreed to extradite Konstantin Nikulin, 40, former OMON Special Purpose Police Squad hit man and one of the suspects in a case of manslaughter in Medininkai border checkpoint of eastern Lithuania.

The suspect in this 17 year-old case concerning the killing of seven Lithuanian officers and injuring of one, has appealed to Latvia’s Supreme Court regarding the decision to extradite him to Lithuania, therefore he is to remain in Latvia until the court reaches its final verdict.

As the BNS announced the Chief-Prosecutor of Lithuania’s Prosecutor General’s Office Department of Organized Crime and Corruption, Algimantas Kliunka, announced this information in a press conference Thursday. Officers working in his department are investigating this resonant case.Latvian law-enforcement officers detained the suspect on Nov. 28 of last year, based on the European warrant for his arrest issued by Lithuania.

“Nikulin was member of the Special Purpose Police Squad’s group Delta-1. We suspect that members of this group are responsible for the murder of seven officers and attempted murder of one more”, Prosecutor Kliunka.

Nikulin was one of the top 16 most wanted individuals by Lithuanian police.

The pre-trial investigation has established that the first 7 police and customs officers of the independent Lithuania were killed and the sole survivor Tomas Sernas was grievously wounded as a result of doing their duty. Stationed on duty on July 31, 1991, the men died of headshots from Kalashnikov assault rifles.

The data collected in the process of the pre-trial investigation allow the prosecutors to suspect that the crime was done by hit men of the former Soviet Union’s militia special operations unit OMON from Riga, who were visiting the OMON base in Vilnius on July 30, 1991. Another group of militia from Riga’s OMON set off an explosive device at the headquarters of the 42nd division of the Soviet Union on L.Sapiegos Street in Vilnius on the very same night.

The BNS remeinded that the investigation of the manslaughter at the Medininkai checkpoint is aggravated by the fact that the suspects and a lot of important witnesses reside in Russia.

The seven officers are believed to have been killed in Medininkai to cause confusion at the customs of the country that had just declared its independence. At that time, OMON hitmen would quite often assault checkpoints and beat up officers stationed there.

Lithuanians were forced to act peacefully by the political circumstances of the time, and the culprits did not receive an adequate response.

There is available information that Medininkai check-point was chosen for the uncanny crime with personal revenge motives.

As the BNS reported discussions of what type of provocation to organize against Lithuania, which supposedly has become the headquarters of “anti-Russian extremism”, taking place in the highest-ranking levels in Russia, Lithuanian daily Kauno Diena says.

Two weeks ago, Baltic special services with Lithuania among them, received unprecedented acknowledgement and compliments from the Kremlin.

“In 2007 secret services of foreign countries, especially those of the Baltic States, have become more active”, Director of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) Nikolai Patrushev said in a meeting with journalists. The security official insinuated the presence of Lithuanian among other intelligence in Russia.

The daily’s sources in Russia note that the idea of Lithuania becoming one of the main opponents in the intelligencer battles is becoming more prevalent in FSB headquarters in Kremlin.

“Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the secret services have it that Vilnius is becoming the “outpost nr. 2 of anti-Russian extremism” after London”, one high ranking Kremlin official told the daily.

Kauno Diena says Russia is certain that Lithuania’s authorities and secret services are encouraging the activity of anti-Russian groups and actively collaborates with the secret services of the US and Great Britain.

Lithuania’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs is also receiving signals that the Kremlin’s outlook on Vilnius has plummeted to a high extent.

Foreign Minister Petras Vaitiekunas has often insinuated this fact. According to Kauno Diena, some of his statements could be perceived as public letters to Russia written in order to diffuse the hostile attitude of some of Kremlin’s officials.

Kauno Diena has it that information in Russia’s press about a potential entrenchment attempt against Russia’s President Vladimir Putin is also a source of anxiety. Analytics are certain that these are games of the Russian secret services and this scandalous information has come under the veil of the report of US strategic investigations.

The daily predicts that Lithuania might be entangled in these inner battles as well.

According to Kauno Diena, a few sources note that the FSB is especially active in dissemination of talks about the murder attempt. Secret documents of the Russian secret services mention that such an attack could be launched by Chechnyan rebels and financed by Boris Berezovsky who is currently in hiding in London. The daily says that the officials that have seen these documents remind that the FSB and other organizations in charge of security are currently active in trying to induce that Lithuania has become the headquarters of Chechnyan rebels.

“They are convinced in Moscow that Lithuania is the largest and one of the most active Diasporas of the Chechnyans. The secret services are emphasizing in their reports that Lithuanian authorities do not interfere with the activity of “extremist groups” and arrive at a conclusion that it is in fact the opposite case scenario - such activity is promoted. More over, the reports in question state the groups of “Chechnyan extremists” are actively collaborating with Lithuania’s secret services”, the daily cites unnamed “well-informed individuals”.

Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Services (SVR) bestows specific attention upon the fact that the family of the deceased first President of Chechnya Dzohar Dudajev found refuge in Lithuania. In the opinion of SVR, Dudajev’s sons could at the very least consolidate the emergence of Chechnyan resistance.

Moscow also suspects that Boris Berezovsky has also become more active in Lithuania. A film was recently shown in the country about Alexander Litvinenko, friend of the oligarch. Its director Andrej Nekrasov presented the film endorsed by Berezovsky.

Regardless of whether an attempt against Putin will take place or will be enacted and “disclosed”, the FSB has enough information to find a “Lithuanian footprint”. An informational attack of a high extent would be in forecast for Vilnius, followed by certain political actions of Moscow, Kauno diena says.

The paper’s sources say that Russia’s secret agencies are also actively pursuing discrediting information about the EP member Vytautas Landsbergis, who still holds a considerably powerful position in Lithuania. They are seeking to connect the politician, who is regarded as a personal enemy of the FSB, with the controversially acclaimed Italian Mario Scaramella who is mentioned in Litvinenko’s case. It is affirmed that Scaramella supposedly sought contact with the EP member through people in the latter’s closest surroundings. Therefore, should the Russian secret services together with the General Prosecution Services turn Scaramella into the “hero of the anti-Russian intelligence scandal”, the standing of Landsbergis could also suffer in the eyes of the West, Kauno Diena says.

As the BNS reported Lithuania should anticipate the possibility that security threats to the planned construction of the power plant can come not only from the East, but also from international terrorist networks, thinks Seimas National Security and Defense Committee Chairman Algimantas Matulevicius.

“Let’s not limit ourselves to talking about the East when considering the threat of terrorism. A power plant is a specific object (…) some person tied with Al Qaeda could by a few shares and, under the current joint-stock company law, would have a full right to find out all security measures utilized in this object, because shareholders have access to almost all of the information, and we can not be playing with this thing”, the MP has said in a press conference.

As the daily Kauno Diena announced the Lithuanian Muslims have expressed disappointment over a The commercial TV channel LNK television coverage of suspicions of the country’s special services about extremists coming to the state under the guise of movement spreading Islam might pray in mosques on Saturday.

The TV channel reported that the authorities have established that one of the organizations spreading Islam in Lithuania could be disguising terrorists searching for executors of terrorist acts. The TV said that analogous suspects had been identified by Estonian police, and an investigation is also carried out by Lithuania’s State Security Department.

Today, the imam of Kaunas mosque Romas Jakubauskas denied such statements in an interview to the daily newspaper Kauno Diena.  “We speak for safer Lithuania ourselves and we have no connections with terrorists,” said Jakubauskas.

The imam did not deny that members of the organization Tablighi Jamaat are quite frequent guests in Lithuania, describing their practice as missionary.

As the BNS reported, in April, the State Security Department reported about reconnaissance anti-terrorist operation completed with partners in other countries and detention of 14 persons in Estonia, Lithuania and other countries.

Islam experts doubt whether Tablighi Jamaat could be looking for potential terrorists in Lithuania.

Racius also underscored the small size of the Muslim community in Lithuania.  He noted that if the organisation came to look for new recruits to Lithuania they must have left the country very disappointed.  As the scientist told there is no a critical mass for the possible recruitment, he even struggles to conduct some of his questioners since the Muslim population in Lithuania is very small.

According to various calculations, the Muslim population in Lithuania counts approximately 3,000 people Most of Lithuanian converts to Islam are women who married Muslims and live in Great Britain or other countries. As the paper writes there are only four small Muslim mosques operate in Kaunas, Vilnius and Alytus.

From now on the interested in the secret KGB past can read the organisation’s documents on line.  The Baltic historians decided to publish the KGB documents on line already last year, hence the site was launched yesterday.

As you will see a lot of the site is still under construction but it has a great potential for the historians, and people who are interested in the darkest pages of the history of the Soviet occupation of the Baltic states.

As it was mentioned before, Lithuania is not considering a possibility to accept terrorist suspects who are now being kept in the US military base Guantanamo.  However, according to the BNS Lithuania is prepared to aid the international efforts to shut it down with political measures.This statement was made for BNS by adviser at the Foreign Ministry’s Information and Public Relations Department Daiva Rimasauskaite in comment on the media reports claiming Lithuania would agree to accept certain individuals imprisoned in the Guantanamo marine base. “We are not shunning this matter, yet at the same time we cannot undertake obligations that are politically sensitive and practically awkward, like accepting prisoners in Lithuania,” the diplomat said.

In her words, the same position has been conveyed to the leaders of Belgium’s Senate, special envoy of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Anne Marie Lizin, who has recently urged the countries of the world to accept some of the people held in Guantanamo in order to shut down the Cuba-based prison in the long run.

As the official told to the BNS “That could be both our statement that would support the efforts of the US and the OSCE envoy, and assistance seeking a consensus with the EU on this matter. In necessary, we could help the US with our contacts, talking with our partners who, in their own turn, might be willing to contribute to tackling the Guantanamo issue directly.“

An OSCE special representative has claimed that Lithuania would agree to accept some of the persons imprisoned in the Guantanamo Naval Base. Lithuanian politicians were surprised to hear these words. The Lithuanian prisons are not prepared for this, and there actually have not been any talks about such plans.

Interested in Accepting Prisoners?

The president of the Belgian Senate, Ann-Marie Lizin (OSCE special representative), who is known for her criticism of the United States over Guantanamo, has considerably softened her opinion since her visit to the base last month.

The OSCE special representative has started urging other countries to accept at least some of the prisoners, so that only the most dangerous suspected terrorists — the “most valuable” prisoners, speaking in CIA lingo — remain at the base. Last week in Vienna, Lizin told the organization’s representatives that, in the long run, this would help close the prison in Cuba.According to the foreign press, several countries have already agreed to lodge about 80 persons from Guantanamo in their prisons.

The special representative claimed that only Albania, a loyal US ally, declared it would accept any prisoners. Reportedly, eight prisoners have already arrived in that country. Belgium has accepted two prisoners.

Moreover, Lizin informed the OSCE representatives that Lithuania, Denmark, and Germany have expressed their “provisory interest.”

Lithuanian Politicians Surprised

Parliament and government members interviewed by Delfi claimed that this was the first they had heard about the proposal. Foreign Minister Petras Vaitiekunas was the only one who said that he would not comment on anything, justifying this by claiming he was on vacation.Defense Minister Juozas Olekas, who is acting prime minister, said this was the first time he heard about the possibility of transferring some of the prisoners to Lithuania. Delfi did not manage to contact Justice Minister Petras Baguska on 30 July.

The chairman of the parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee, Justinas Karosas, also was surprised by the talk about accepting the Guantanamo prisoners. “I think she (Lizin) is bluffing,” the parliamentarian said.

A member of the parliamentary delegation to the OSCE parliamentary assembly, Audronius Azubalis, also had not heard anything about such plans. He doubted that Lithuania could accept prisoners from abroad.

“As far as I know, it would be very difficult, to put it mildly, to accept detainees into our prisons. Moreover, would it be fair to other prisoners?” the Conservative said.

According to him, the decision about accepting the prisoners should be made only after serious consultations with the parliament. He also recalled that Lithuania has already made a considerable contribution to the fight against international terrorism.

Delfi.lt, BBC Monitoring Service