Lithuania’s top judge calls Russia’s behavior “a parody of justice”

In his words, “there’s neither law nor justice for a long time” in the activity of the Russian Investigative Committee.

“To persecute officers opening cases on crimes against humanity, war crimes and aggression is a parody of justice,” Žalimas told BNS on Monday. “One could describe this way of acting as the criminal punishing the victim for resisting.”

In Žalimas’ opinion, Lithuania is a second country whose law enforcement has been subject to such actions of Russia. Recently, a similar case was opened against judges of Ukraine‘s Constitutional Court for condemning the annexation of Crimea.

The president of the Constitutional Court believes Lithuanian law enforcement officers should review their cooperation with Russia and other post-Soviet countries.

“We should change the stance of our law enforcement officers that professional counterparts work in Russia and they need to have professional ties with them. Their actions serve for the glorification of crimes of the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation,” Žalimas said.

He noted that Lithuania’s Constitutional Court does not cooperate with such institutions in CIS countries, excluding Moldova.

Earlier on Monday, Russia’s Investigative Committee opened cases against Lithuanian judges and prosecutors hearing the January 13 case, based on an article of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation on “knowingly bringing an innocent person to criminal liability“.

A total of 67 people have been charged with crimes against humanity and war crimes in the January 13th case, with the majority of them standing trial in absentia. Lithuanian prosecutors have proposed sentencing former Soviet defense Minister Dmitry Yazov and several other army officers to life in prison.

Fourteen civilians were killed and hundreds more were wounded when the Soviet troops stormed the TV Tower and the Radio and Television Committee building in Vilnius in the early hours of Jan. 13, 1991.