The Prosecutor General’s Office has handed over to the court a criminal case in which two Lithuanian citizens are accused of espionage for Belarus.
According to the Prosecutor General’s Office, in May 2022, the two defendants travelled to Minsk, where, through an intermediary, they agreed on contacts and further cooperation with representatives of the country’s military structures.
One of the defendants even joined and became an active member of the Lithuanian Riflemen’s Union, a paramilitary organisation, in order to spy on its activities, the prosecutors said.
The Riflemen’s Union has not yet commented to BNS whether the person is still a member of the organisation.
According to the prosecutor’s office, investigators collected enough evidence to reasonably believe that after this meeting, and until their arrest in November 2023, the two defendants were carrying out tasks for the General Staff of the General Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Belarusian Ministry of Defence (GRU).
They were allegedly gathering information in Lithuania and Latvia and handing it over to the GRU in exchange for money.
The Belarusian GRU representatives were interested in information on military equipment and weapons belonging to the Lithuanian Armed Forces, the National Defence Volunteer Forces, the Lithuanian Riflemen’s Union, and NATO troops deployed in Lithuania.
The GRU was also interested in the infrastructure and strategic facilities protection, the activities of the Lithuanian Riflemen’s Union and its trainings.
The suspected spies also collected information about the Belarusian opposition organisations and activists in Lithuania.
They also allegedly identified other Lithuanian citizens who could be recruited by the GRU.
Although the information they handed over to Belarus was allegedly unclassified, prosecutors said “it is valuable both for the armed forces of foreign countries in preparing plans for military aggression and for use in other activities against the Lithuanian state”.
Both defendants are currently under arrest. If convicted, they face imprisonment for up to 15 years.
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