“During the investigation, the identity of the dead person found in the Neris River was established: he is a 32-year-old citizen of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, whose last place of residence was found to be in the United Kingdom. According to the investigation, the person’s death was not violent. In order not to harm the ongoing pre-trial investigation, more detailed information cannot be made public at this time,” states the answer of the Vilnius District Prosecutor’s Office.
Last August, the body of a person of unknown age and identity was found in the river Neris, Vilnius district, near the village of Kūniškės, the police started a pre-trial investigation to determine the cause of death.
“An unknown person was found in the Neris River, his identity was determined, and a DNA test was conducted. He found his relatives and identified them. He seems to be a migrant, but I can’t tell if he is from Belarus, maybe they brought him to Lithuania or something,” said one person familiar with the situation who did not want to reveal his identity.
From the preliminary data, it became clear that the person found in the stage of decomposition in Neri is a man, the authorities are communicating with his wife and brother.
Irina Kurilo, the prosecutor of the Vilnius District Prosecutor’s Office, who supervises the pre-trial investigation, told tv3.lt on Wednesday that she could not provide information because the investigation is ongoing.
“You will have to wait because we don’t have all the answers from all the authorities yet. Therefore, I cannot provide information”, said the prosecutor.
According to unofficial data, the Sri Lankan’s body is currently being kept in a morgue in Lentwari.
Giedrius Mišutis, public relations adviser of the State Border Guard Service, could not provide information, but mentioned that Belarusian officials often accuse Lithuania, Latvia and Poland of crimes that did not exist. For example, Latvia was recently accused of allegedly dragging the body of a dead migrant to the side of Belarus.
Belarus in 2021 started to send migrants across the border of Lithuania, Latvia and Poland in an organized manner, but all these countries have taken extremely strict border protection, applied a policy of turning back, which means that migrants are simply not allowed into the country and in very rare cases can submit an asylum request, and if they managed to enter, they were often detained , although the Court of Justice of the European Union has criticized these measures as inconsistent with European Union law.
The peak of the migration war was reached in 2021. in December, when a huge crowd of migrants was deliberately directed to force their way into Poland, but the crisis was resolved after the intervention of representatives of the European Union. During the negotiations, a reduction in flights from Iraq to Belarus was achieved, but a number of migrants are currently coming through Russia to Belarus and trying to get to the European Union.
Lithuania has built a physical barrier along the border with Belarus and is installing surveillance systems to better protect the border.
