Kanarsk released – Delphi

After 2 years in custody, K. Kanarskas was released after he was given lighter pretrial measures: he is obliged to pay 80,000. EUR bail, a collar is put on him and he is forbidden to leave the house.

The prosecutors who accuse K. Kanarskas of organizing an international criminal organization fear that the Kaunas citizen may run abroad and hide from justice, as well as commit new crimes, after being released.

“K. Kanarskas not only possibly committed very serious and serious crimes of an international nature, but also organized, planned, mobilized other persons and led them, the prosecutor’s office pointed out. – The nature of the crimes charged to the accused justifies that he has international criminal connections, using which he can hide from the impending strict criminal liability, one of the accomplices of the criminal acts is possibly hiding in the Kingdom of Spain. In addition, the accused’s adult son lives in the United Kingdom.”

However, the Lithuanian Court of Appeals decided last week that such fears of the prosecutors are exaggerated.

“In the case under consideration, it should be emphasized that the electronic monitoring of the defendant’s movements is the second most stringent pre-trial detention measure, which, together with the collection of personal documents, can undoubtedly be considered effective, ensuring that the defendant will participate in the process and will not commit new crimes,” the court ruled.

Law enforcement suspects K. Kanarskas that he, together with Algimantas Kalinauskas, formed a group that opened a cannabis cultivation laboratory in the Spanish city of Alicante, and then transported tens of kilograms of the produce grown there to Lithuania and sold it there.

K. Kanarskas faces imprisonment from 10 to 15 years for drug trafficking and their smuggling in large quantities alone, and life imprisonment for leading a criminal association.

In addition, the investigation into the murder of a young woman from Kaunas 20 years ago, in which the name of K. Kanarskas also appears, is still ongoing.

The prosecutor pointed out that according to the Code of Criminal Procedure, K. Kanarska can still be considered under arrest. The law stipulates that the term of arrest cannot last longer than two-thirds of the harshest sentence imposed on him.

Nevertheless, the judges who examined the case pointed out that arrest cannot become a punishment for a person.

“The mere threat of a severe prison sentence does not in itself provide a reason to keep the accused under arrest for an indefinite period of time. Pre-trial detention cannot be equated with a prison sentence. The punishment imposed on a person who has committed a crime, including very serious crimes, no matter how severe it may be, begins to be executed only after the sentence has been pronounced and entered into force.

Although the freedom of a person is severely restricted during both pre-trial detention and imprisonment, the basis and purpose of pre-trial detention and imprisonment, conditions of execution, etc., are different,” the judges noted in their decision.

The judges relied on the practice formed by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) that the longer a person is detained, the more serious arguments are needed to continue keeping him behind bars without announcing the verdict.

“The ECtHR has also indicated that the longer a person is kept in custody, the more carefully (carefully) specific facts must be checked (analyzed) that prove the need to keep such a person in custody, and there is no basis for formal statements that a person can hide from the court, do committing new crimes or obstructing the administration of justice does not constitute grounds for continuing the term of detention,” the court noted.

True, the Kaunas District Court, having decided to release K. Kanarskas, set the condition that he can leave the house after receiving the permission of the Probation Service. In the assessment of the Lithuanian Court of Appeal, such a clause is still premature and its application is still inappropriate.

In addition, he was allocated 50 thousand in the first instance. The EUR deposit was also too small, so it was increased to EUR 80,000. euros.

According to the prosecutor’s office, even this amount may be too small, because he could have earned much more from drug trafficking.

K. Kanarskas is currently not only on trial for drugs, but also appears in another case – for the murder of a young girl that has not been investigated for more than 20 years.

A girl who worked as a saleswoman was attacked in 2002. February 11 around 11:30 p.m. in Kaunas. The victim was found stripped naked, with at least 11 blows to the head. According to experts, she suffered great physical suffering and died three days later in Kaunas clinics.

“She was badly desecrated, it could be seen that the crime was committed out of revenge or hatred. This girl was dragged to the balcony of the first floor of an apartment building. She was beaten so badly that even her mother recognized her daughter only by her adult toes. The victim’s face was destroyed,” Giedrius Danėlius, who worked as a prosecutor at the time and supervised the investigation, told Delfi earlier.

Suspicions already fell on the leader of the “Aguoninių” group Klydas Kanarskas (b. 1975). However, he was eventually acquitted and released in court, leaving the murder officially unsolved.

However, a breakthrough in the case was made in 2019. after crushing the “Kamuolinių” group, the leader of which is Giedrius Janonis, who was a close associate of K. Kanarskas at the beginning of his criminal career.

It was during the investigation of the crimes of “Kamuoliņi” that the unsolved case of the girl’s murder came to the table of the officials. When it began to be investigated, suspicions arose that the investigation was incomplete and inadequate, and that the officials who conducted it may have even abused it. True, they are no longer liable because the statute of limitations has expired.

When the officers re-investigated the case, they managed to find the second suspect, Jonas Snieška (born in 1980), who had been hiding in England for almost 20 years.

It was his testimony that made all the points: he told how K. Kanarskas was saved from responsibility by corrupt officials. It was through their efforts that the testimony of important witnesses was distorted, and part of the evidence was simply hidden. For example, the fact that the murdered woman’s wallet was found in K. Kanarska’s car was concealed.

During his testimony, J. Snieška mentioned that he was actively hiding because K. Kanarskas promised to deal with him if he was caught. Moreover, his search was most likely entrusted to the same corrupt officials who saved the mafia shul from accountability.

After these new circumstances came to light, the Supreme Court of Lithuania allowed the reopening of the case last year.