A Vilnius court has dismissed a claim to stop the reconstruction of the Soviet-era Sports Palace built on a former Jewish cemetery.
Several dozen plaintiffs, led by a Jewish Israeli, argued that reconstruction works on the currently derelict building, which is to be converted into a conference venue, would desecrate human remains that could still be buried under the site.
Read more: Israeli man asks court to stop reconstruction on former Jewish cemetery in Vilnius
However, the District Court of Vilnius City dismissed the claim on Monday, saying the plaintiffs failed to present evidence to back their claim.
“It is to be stated that the court has failed to identify the conditions for satisfying a preventive claim in this case: the plaintiffs have not proved either their right of claim, or the actuality of potential damage, or circumstances that the defendant conducts unlawful actions (does not comply with its legal obligation) that could cause damage,” the court said in its ruling.
According to the claim, the Vilnius Palace of Concerts and Sports was built in the territory of an old Jewish cemetery that had been there since the 16th century. It was closed in the 19th century and the majority of graves were destroyed during the construction of the building in the late 1960s. All surface signs marking the cemetery were also destroyed.
“The cemetery’s boundaries, as they are confirmed at present, are not precise and there are human remains under the building of the Sports Palace,” the claim said.
Read more: Jewish organisations greenlight reconstruction of Vilnius congress hall built on cemetery
The plaintiffs also pointed out that many of their ancestors and relatives had been buried at that cemetery and their remains remained under the building and its surroundings.
According to the European Foundation of Human Rights (EFHR), a public body representing Yousef Yizhak, a Litvak living in Israel, the planned earth moving works will inevitably affect the human remains there.
“The building that is planned to be reconstructed will operate as a centre for conferences and concerts where people will dance, cheer and drink in bars on the graves of many thousands of Vilnius residents. Whatever the event may be, representatives of the Jewish community will remind all incoming guests, delegations from other countries, that this venue has been built on human remains,” the plaintiffs said.
Meanwhile, Turto Bankas, a state property management firm which was the defendant in the case, asked the court to dismiss the claim arguing that the terms of reconstruction had been agreed with the Committee for the Preservation of Jewish Cemeteries in Europe.
According to Turto Bankas, “this agreement between the parties will undoubtedly ensure the commemoration and preservation of the cemetery as a historical and sacred site as well as adequate use of the reconstructed building”.
The planned reconstruction of the Sports Center “is not and cannot be considered an illegal act”, Turto Bankas maintains.
The company argued that the plaintiffs had not specified any laws that were broken, basing their arguments on abstract statements and assumptions instead.
The Finance Ministry, the local authority of Vilnius and the Lithuanian Jewish (Litvak) Community also disagreed with the claim’s allegations.
The court also said that the plaintiffs did not present any hard data that they had family links with anyone buried in the cemetery. According to the court, concerns of Jewish people over proper preservation of a Jewish cemetery are understandable, but insufficient as grounds to demand that the preventive claim be satisfied.
The court also stated that, even though the building was built partly on the territory of the former cemetery, there were no grounds to conclude that any human remains were still left buried under the Sports Palace, as this was not corroborated by any hard data.
The court’s ruling can be appealed with Vilnius Regional Court within 30 days.
Reconstruction of the Sports Palace’s complex is scheduled to begin next year. Earlier reports said that a tender for a contractor was expected to be announced in mid-2021.
Read more: Mapping layers of trauma in Lithuania's built heritage. Interview with Tatiana Pinto
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