Tomas Šernas – a defender of Lithuania’s independence, the sole survivor of the Medininkai massacre and now an Evangelical Reformed priest – has been named this year’s recipient of Lithuania’s Freedom Prize.
On Tuesday, 103 members of parliament voted in favour of awarding the honour to Šernas.
Šernas is the only survivor of the killing of Lithuanian officials at the Medininkai border post on the Belarusian frontier in July 1991.
He joined the Voluntary National Defence Service in 1990 and began working for the Lithuanian Customs Service in early 1991.
On July 31, 1991, while on duty at Medininkai, he and his colleagues were attacked by members of the Riga Special Purpose Militia Unit (OMON). Several Lithuanian officers were shot dead and Šernas was critically wounded.
He was ordained as a priest in 2002.
The Freedom Prize, established by the Lithuanian parliament in 2011, honours “individuals and organisations for their achievements in and contribution to the defence of human rights, the development of democracy and the promotion of international cooperation for the cause of self-determination and the sovereignty of nations in Eastern and Central Europe”.
Recipients receive a Freedom statuette and a monetary award, now worth €14,000. The prize is presented each year on January 13, Lithuania’s Day of the Defenders of Freedom.
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