The Kaunas Regional Court on Thursday acquitted Algirdas Paleckis, a controversial former politician already serving a sentence for spying for Russia, of defaming MP Laurynas Kasčiūnas but found him guilty of denying international crimes by expressing contempt for partisans.
Lina Lesinskienė, the presiding judge of the panel, announced that Paleckis was sentenced to one year, 10 months, and 18 days in prison.
The verdict takes effect immediately but can still be appealed through cassation.
Last November, the first-instance Kaunas District Court found Paleckis guilty of defaming Kasčiūnas but acquitted him of expressing contempt for partisans.
Violating honour of partisans
The appellate court ruled that Paleckis’ remarks in an October 2022 YouTube video were intended to trivialise the purpose of Lithuania’s anti-Soviet resistance.
According to the court, the information Paleckis presented about the partisans and some of the sources he cited “do not correspond to Lithuanian history, and are based on KGB-provided information, which was later officially refuted by other historians”.
Furthermore, the court found that Paleckis made these statements not only publicly but in an offensive and insulting manner, violating the honour and dignity of the partisans.
The panel of judges noted that the video was released on the 30th anniversary of the Lithuanian Constitution and eight months after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a time when Lithuanian citizens were anxious about their country’s future and when US support for Ukraine and its role in Lithuania’s security via NATO were widely discussed.
“Therefore, the appellate court held that Paleckis’ statement downplaying the role of the USSR in the events of 1945–1946, shifting responsibility onto America, and claiming that 25,000 innocent civilians, including women, children, and infants, were killed due to (the US) influence was a purposeful act by him,” the Kaunas Regional Court stated.
Statements about Kasčiūnas
However, the court overturned the lower court’s conviction of defaming Kasčiūnas, who was chairman of the parliamentary Committee on National Security and Defence (NSGK) at the time.
According to the appellate court, Paleckis humiliated Kasčiūnas by associating him with Nazi views in his statement, but this violation of the law was not severe enough to warrant criminal liability.
“Paleckis’ public statement did not exceed the threshold for civil liability,” the Kaunas Regional Court stated.
The court also pointed out that public figures must be prepared to tolerate harsher, sometimes unfounded criticism and should seek redress under civil law if they believe their honour and dignity have been violated.
Kasčiūnas told journalists on Thursday that he was satisfied with the court’s ruling and would not appeal against it.
Ruling appealed
The Kaunas District Court stated last November that Paleckis did not deny Soviet crimes and that the specific article of the Criminal Code he was charged under did not criminalise expressing contempt for partisans. The court also ruled that his comments on partisans were his opinion or an assessment based on other objective facts.
However, the district court found his remarks calling the NSGK a “Nazi committee” defamatory, as they damaged Kasčiūnas’ reputation and were factually incorrect.
For this, the first-instance court sentenced Paleckis to one year and eight months in prison.
Paleckis’ lawyer appealed for his acquittal on the defamation charge, while the Kaunas Regional Prosecutor’s Office challenged his acquittal on charges of public condonation of crimes committed by the USSR or Nazi Germany and of expressing contempt for partisans.
Paleckis has previously been convicted of espionage for Russia. In June 2023, the Supreme Court of Lithuania reclassified his actions as preparation for espionage and reduced his sentence by six months to five and a half years.
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