Lithuania's Court of Appeals has upped sentences for former Soviet officers in the high-profile January 13 case.
Yuri Mel, Genady Ivanov and 14 other convicts had their punishments amended on Wednesday.
They were charged for taking part in the Soviet crackdown against Lithuanian civilians in January 1991 and were convicted in 2019.
Judge Ernestas Rimšelis, who presided over the judicial panel, said during Wednesday's hearing that the court decided to partially satisfy the appeals of two convicts, the Prosecutor General's Office and victims Robertas Povilaitis and Ona Povilaitienė.
The court decided to issue a concurrent 5-year prison term for Ivanov, who was initially sentenced to four years in prison. The court also extended Mel's previous sentence by three years and issued a concurrent prison term of ten years.
In Mel's case, the court included in its sentence the seven years Mel spent in detention. Therefore, he will now spend another three years behind bars.
Read more: Russia's prosecution of Lithuanian judges put on EP agenda
In total, the Court of Appeals changed sentences for 16 out of the 67 convicts in this case.
The previous court's judgement in civil lawsuits linked to the case has also been amended.
“To order the convicts to jointly pay 50,000 euros in damages to victim Robertas Povilaitis, to award 75,000 euros in non-pecuniary damages to Ona Povilaitienė, and to award 10.8 million euros in pecuniary damages to the State of Lithuania,” the judge said during the hearing on Wednesday.
The court also lifted the ten-year prison term for former Soviet Defence Minister Dmitry Yazov as he died last year.
On March 27, 2019, Vilnius Regional Court found 67 people guilty of crimes against humanity and war crimes, giving prison sentences ranging from four to 14 years.
Vladimir Uskhopchik, the Soviet Army's former Vilnius garrison commander, was sentenced to 14 years in prison, and Mikhail Golovatov, a former KGB officer, received 12 years.
The majority of the defendants were sentenced in absentia as Russia and Belarus refused to extradite them. Only two convicts – Yuri Mel and Genady Ivanov – heard the ruling in person.
Mel, who was the only detained person awaiting the ruling, was initially issued a seven-year prison sentence, and Ivanov was sentenced to four years in prison.
A total of 61 appeals were filed in the case by 59 convicts and their lawyers, as well as the prosecutors, victims and civil plaintiffs.
The Prosecutor General's Office argued that the punishments were too mild.
The prosecutors also asked in their appeal to state that the convicts acted as an organised group, which would be considered an aggravating factor.
Moreover, the court was asked to award more than 11 million euros in pecuniary damages from all convicts. The sum includes victims' treatment costs, the installation of memorials and infrastructure repairs.
The defence lawyers argued in their appeals they disagreed with the factual circumstances in the case and the legal arguments, seeking acquittal for their clients.
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 January 13, 1991.
The Soviet Union used military force in its attempt to remove the legitimate government of Lithuania which declared independence on March 11, 1990.
Read more: Occupied but not silenced. January 13, 1991: the night when Soviets stormed LRT
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