The Soviet-era statues removed from Antakalnis Cemetery in Vilnius will be moved to the Grūto Parkas, which houses dozens of Soviet monuments in the southern city of Druskininkai, the Vilnius authorities decided on Wednesday.
Vilnius will sign an agreement to display the monuments at the park for at least 20 years. The municipality, however, will retain the ownership of the statues.
The city’s authorities decided to dismantle the stelae in June after the Department of Cultural Heritage changed the criteria for the assessment of immovable cultural valuables.
This decision was appealed to the United Nations Human Rights Committee. Following a complaint last year, interim measures have been in place until now.
The decision was appealed to the UN Human Rights Committee, and the interim measures introduced after the complaint remain in place.
The measures were put in place after the committee received a petition signed by several individuals calling themselves "ethnic Russians", including Kazimieras Juraitis, an activist who went to meet with the Belarusian authorities earlier this year, and Dmitrij Glazkov, Tatiana Brandt, and Anastasija Brandt.
"The Council's decision does not run counter to the interim measures as the statues are simply being moved to another display location," the municipality said.
Commenting on the decision to remove the statues despite the ban, Lithuania's Justice Ministry and the Vilnius authorities said the UN committee was led to believe that the monument would be desecrated and that the nearby remains would be reburied.
The statues are currently stored within the premises of Grinda, a municipal enterprise.
Read more: Vilnius postpones removal of Soviet monument as UN human rights committee intervenes
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