Lithuania sentences man for spying for Belarus

Romualdas Lipskis
DELFI / Mindaugas Ažušilis

The man was sentenced to three years and three months behind bars in a correction house.

This is the first espionage case that reached the court after the restoration of Lithuania’s independence.

Prosecutors and the State Security Department (VSD) announced in November 2014 that the accused man had been spying for Belarus. Based on evidence of the case, the man had been taking photographs of documents and other objects in his office while working at Oro Navigacija and transferred them to the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Belarus.

It is suspected that the accused collected and transferred information about the Lithuanian Armed Forces, its units, state enterprises that have strategic importance for Lithuania’s national security, as well as their activity and equipment. According to the prosecutor, the defendant in 2011-2013 gathered information about state enterprise Oro Navigacija, the International Vilnius Airport and the Lithuanian Air Base in Šiauliai where NATO soldiers are stationed.

Lipskis denied his guilt. Prosecutor Redas Savickas had asked for an eight-year sentence. The maximum imprisonment term for espionage in Lithuania is 15 years.

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