After a Belarusian court found a Lithuanian woman guilty of spying on Tuesday, Lithuania’s State Security Department (VSD) calls the verdict “baseless insinuations”.
“The KGB, one of the key pillars of the Belarusian regime, made absurd accusations that she had undermined Belarus’ national security while living in Lithuania,” the intelligence agency said in a statement on Tuesday.
According to Belarusian media, Elena Ramanauskienė was found guilty of spying by a Minsk city court and sentenced to six years in prison.
“The charges against Ramanauskienė are untrue,” the VSD stated. “Ramanauskienė has not engaged in any activity that could in any way harm Belarus, and therefore these charges are baseless insinuations.”
The opposition news website afn.by and the ONT TV cannel reported earlier in the day that Ramanauskienė, an employee of Belorus, a Belarusian-owned sanatorium in Lithuania’s southern city of Druskininkai, had been found guilty of agent activities.
The trial took place behind closed doors. The 59-year-old woman was accused of repeatedly passing on information about incoming guests, including high-ranking Belarusian officials.
She was allegedly recruited by Lithuanian special services more than 10 years ago.
The Lithuanian Foreign Ministry told BNS it was aware of the situation, but stressed it had no reason to believe the allegations were substantiated.
The ministry also reiterated its recommendation for Lithuanian nationals not to travel to Belarus, warning that they may be illegally detained, face false accusations, and be interrogated by Belarusian security officers.
The 15min.lt news website reported earlier that Ramanauskienė may have been detained by Belarusian officers last year when she was on her way back to Lithuania from Belarus where she was visiting family members.
In the summer of 2023, Belarusian media reported that Andrei Kobel, the former head doctor of the Belorus sanatorium in Lithuania’s southern resort town of Druskininkai, would be tried for spying for Lithuania. He was detained by the Belarusian KGB in late 2022.
Afn.by points out now that he was earlier sentenced to nine years in prison. According to ONT, he is already serving his sentence.
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