After several weeks of searches, officials have found three children, aged 9, 7, and 5, who were abducted by their parents from a care home in Kaunas.
According to LNK TV, the children were found in Lithuania, as confirmed by the Commissioner General of Lithuanian Police.
The parents of the children, Inga Vilčinkienė and Mindaugas Vilčinskas, have been arrested.
Darius Valkavičius, Chief Prosecutor of the Kaunas Regional Prosecutor’s Office, confirmed to LRT.lt that the search for the three children and their parents by the Lithuanian police was successful and the family was found.
“I have no information about anything wrong with them, so let’s assume that everything is fine,” he said briefly when asked about the condition of the children.
The police detained the children a few hours ago as their parents tried to take them out of Lithuania, according to Ilma Skuodienė, head of the State Child Rights Protection and Adoption Service.
“The children have been through extraordinary experiences over the past few days, and our first task is to ensure a safe environment for them and to take care of their physical and emotional safety,” she told LRT.lt.
The children were removed from the family by a court decision in June because the father refused to let them attend school.
The parent’s convictions stem from the so-called movement of sovereign citizens, “an anti-state extremist ideology that denies the legitimacy of the state”, according to the country’s intelligence service. Notably, the father has openly renounced his Lithuanian citizenship, calling himself a “free, living person”.
Further reading
Newsletter
Every Friday morning.
