On Thursday, the European Peoples’ Party (EPP) group in the European Parlimanet called on Russia to “immediately stop intimidating Lithuanian judges”.
“Lithuanian judges are European judges and deserve EU protection. The Russian Federation must not exploit Interpol’s Red Notice system for political revenge,” said Jeroen Lenaers, EPP Group Spokesman on Civil Liberties, during the joint hearing of civil liberties and foreign affairs committees at the EP.
“It is a new type of hybrid attack to illegitimately persecute the Lithuanian judges, prosecutors, and investigators involved in investigating the tragic events of January 13, 1991,” he said, adding that an “attack on the Lithuanian judicial system is an attack on the EU’s judicial system”.
Read more: European Union ‘owes Lithuania's freedom defenders’ – EC president
Russian authorities opened a criminal case against Lithuanian prosecutors and judges who presided over the January 13 case, where 67 Belarusian, Russian, and Ukrainian nationals were sentenced for war crimes and crimes against humanity during the bloody Soviet crackdown in Vilnius in 1991.
According to EUToday, the group also said the EU should establish a mechanism to protect its citizens from being transferred to third countries on the basis of illegal or politically-motivated extradition requests.
“We should establish an EU mechanism on the exchange of information on politically-motivated Interpol notices in order to prevent the execution of the unlawful or politically-motivated Interpol notices that could be issued against EU citizens,” said Lithuanian MEP Rasa Juknevičienė.
Read more: Soviet Marshal Yazov sentenced by Lithuania dies in Russia
Newsletter
Every Friday morning.
