A Vilnius court on Friday completed hearings in a mass trial related to the 1991 Soviet crackdown on protesters in the Lithuanian capital, with the ruling to be issued next February.
Mikhail Golovatov EN
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Mikhail Golovatov, a former KGB officer who is being tried in absentia for his role in the January 1991 bloody crackdown on protesters in Vilnius, says the Soviet army units came to Lithuania under a direct order from the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev.
Mikhail Golovatov, a former KGB officer who is being tried in absentia for his role in the January 1991 bloody crackdown on protesters in Vilnius, does not admit to the charges and regards the case as political, his lawyer said.
The defendants in the January 13, 1991 case cannot be held accountable for the Jan. 13 events as they followed the orders of their commanders and knew nothing about Lithuania's history, their lawyers say.
The sentences proposed by Lithuanian prosecutors for those on trial in absentia in the January 13, 1991 case are fair, Robertas Povilaitis, who lost his father during the bloody events, says.
The Lithuanian Prosecutor General's Office asks a court to find former Soviet Defense Minister Dmitry Yazov guilty of crimes against humanity during the bloody events of Jan. 13, 1991 in Vilnius and hand him a life sentence.
Defendants in a mass trial related to the bloody events of Jan. 13, 1991 in Vilnius must be given severe prison sentences and pay over 11.3 million euros in damages in a civil lawsuit, public prosecutors from the Prosecutor General's Office said on Monday.
The Vilnius Regional Court has sent three summons to former Soviet leader Gorbachev asking him to testify as a witness in a mass trial related to the bloody events of January 13, 1991 in Vilnius.
On Wednesday, a Vilnius court will open hearings into the case surrounding the 13 January 1991 attempted coup, which is one of the biggest trials in Lithuania's history in terms of the size and the number of suspects.
