Lithuanian activist, who frequently visited Minsk, sentenced to restricted freedom for denying USSR crimes
The Vilnius District Court on Wednesday sentenced Erika Švenčionienė to one and a half years of restricted freedom without intensive supervision for publicly denying the crimes of the USSR, reports LRT.
Erika Švenčionienė. Photo: Svetlana Bolnienė
In addition, Švenčionienė is obliged to work or register with the Employment Service for the entire duration of her sentence, and to immediately delete a public post from her Facebook account that grossly diminishes the significance of the Medininkai tragedy.
The court upheld the rest of the verdict of the Vilnius District Court without changes and rejected the appeal filed by Švenčionienė's lawyer, Svetlana Naidzenka.
"It was argued that the convicted person, by publishing this post, did not deny the fact of the Medininkai tragedy [on July 31, 1991, seven Lithuanian customs officers were killed by Soviet OMON — NN], did not diminish the victims, but only expressed her opinion and raised questions about the circumstances of the case investigation, based on publicly available sources. (...) The court, of course, agrees that every person has the right to express their beliefs and opinions, but this right must be exercised properly," the judge explained.
In February, the Vilnius City District Court sentenced Švenčionienė for intentionally publishing a post on Facebook in July 2024, on the 33rd anniversary of the Medininkai tragedy, that, in an offensive manner, grossly diminished the USSR's aggression against Lithuania in 1991. For this, she was fined 3750 euros.
Erika Švenčionienė and her supporters from the "International Forum of Good Neighborliness" Association have repeatedly visited Belarus, where they participated in pro-government events and were invited to propaganda programs where, as foreign experts, they told various fabrications about Lithuania and the European Union.