As Lina Nemeikaitė, the press representative of the Vilnius District Court, told Elta, on March 25. at the court session, judge Mindaugas Povilanskas announced that it was decided to grant the request of the accused V. Ivanov’s lawyer Ryšards Burdas to appoint a linguistic expert regarding the words spoken by his defense on January 13.
“The judge announced that after hearing the arguments and statements of the participants in the process regarding the linguistic expertise, he is passing a protocol ruling. It is decided that it is appropriate to appoint a linguistic investigation in the case”, said L. Nemeikaitė.
According to her, the final decision on the appointment of expertise will be formulated after receiving proposals from all participants in the process. The participants in the process must submit the mentioned proposals to the court by April 10, the decision on the appointment of the expertise will be announced on April 24.
He emphasized that V. Ivanovas simply stated his opinion
In this criminal case, V. Ivanovas, the former leader of the pro-Soviet organization “Jedinstvo” and Erika Švenčionienė, the head of the already liquidated association “International Good Neighborhood Forum”, are accused of publicly supporting international crimes, crimes of the USSR, denying them or grossly belittling them. The charges against these persons are based on their statements about the events of January 13, 2023. in the program broadcast at the beginning.
V. Ivanovas, according to law enforcement, spoke in the program about the fact that in 1991 On January 13, it was not necessarily USSR military personnel who could shoot and injure Lithuanian citizens.
As V. Ivanov’s lawyer Ryšardas Burda stated to Elta, the purpose of his request is to investigate the thoughts of his client about January 13th in the program.
“I offered to appoint an expert only because in this criminal case, during the pre-trial investigation, the opportunity to turn to specialists was not used to assess those words of V. Ivanov as derogatory, untrue, that is what a specialist, not a lawyer, should basically determine,” – noted the lawyer.
According to him, V. Ivanov had to speak in Lithuanian on the show, and this language is not his native language, so the thoughts expressed by the man, according to the lawyer, could have been misunderstood by law enforcement.
“The interview was in Lithuanian, not Russian, which is V. Ivanov’s native language. So, it is understandable that V. Ivanovas had to look for the equivalent of the words in his head, translating them into Lithuanian. Because of this, we clearly need a linguist’s assessment”, commented R. Burda.
He reminded that V. Ivanov denies the charges brought against him.
“He says that it is his right to have his opinion, his thoughts, to express them. No one can be persecuted for expressing their thoughts,” explained V. Ivanov’s lawyer.
Law enforcement was interested in trips to Belarus, Russia
The Vilnius District Court is examining a criminal case regarding actions against Lithuania and public approval of international crimes.
In this case, charges have been brought against Lithuanian citizens, E. Švenčionienė and Kazimieris Juraičius, representatives of the already liquidated “International Good Neighbor Forum”, as well as V. Ivanov, a Russian citizen living in Lithuania. The General Prosecutor’s Office says that E. Švenčionienė and K. Juraitis visited Belarus, participated in various formats organized by this country and Russia, where they publicly supported the policies of the aforementioned countries, and denied the legitimacy of the Lithuanian Seimas.
E. Švenčionienė and K. Juraitis are accused of helping Russian and Belarusian organizations act against Lithuania while acting in a group of accomplices.
Prosecutor Redas Savickas, who supports the state prosecution in the case, while reading the indictment, repeatedly mentioned the trips of E. Švenčionienė and K. Juraitis to Belarus.
E. Švenčionienė and K. Juraitis were also accused of acting against Lithuania because they expressed support for the 2022 elections. The referendum held in Belarus, in which the abolition of the two-term limit applied to the president and the abolition of the post-Soviet status of nuclear neutrality of Belarus was approved.
It is also recorded that E. Švenčionienė and K. Juraitis, while in Belarus, visited the Astrava nuclear power plant. This nuclear power plant was previously recognized as unsafe, posing a threat to Lithuania’s national security.
E. Švenčionienė is also accused of public approval of international crimes, crimes of the USSR, their denial or gross belittling. V. Ivanovas is also accused of this crime. The charges against these persons are based on the statements of E. Švenčionienė and V. Ivanovas in 2023. at the beginning in one program about the events of January 13.
All the defendants in the case – E. Švenčionienė, K. Juraitis and V. Ivanovas – do not admit their guilt for the incriminated crimes and will testify after witness interviews.
ELTA reminds that on February 20 last year The district court of the Vilnius region decided to liquidate the association “International Good Neighbor Forum”. Such a decision was made after it was established that the association acted against the interests of Lithuania and published false information about allegedly illegal election results in Lithuania. The court also ruled that the association’s activities contradict their declared goals.
The association was liquidated also after taking into account the public statements of its head, E. Švenčionienė, in which, according to law enforcement, she belittled Lithuania, criticized the country’s membership in the European Union, claimed that the elections in Lithuania were invalid, denied the occupation, and justified deportations.
Algirdas Paleckis, who is serving a prison sentence for preparing to spy for Russia, is considered one of the founders of the “International Good Neighbor Forum”. This association came to the attention of law enforcement after its representatives visited Russia, where they participated in meetings with Kremlin politicians, held a press conference, where they expressed doubts about the legality of the election of the Lithuanian government.
Previously, the head of the “International Good Neighbor Forum” E. Švenčionienė visited Belarus with her comrades, where she met the leader of the country’s authoritarians, Aliaksandras Lukašenka.
Tags: court decided experts evaluate Ivanovs statements January
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