Lithuanian police have opened a pre-trial investigation into remarks by Remigijus Žemaitaitis, leader of the Nemunas Dawn party, who described the Day of the Restoration of Independence as a “coup”.
"Police opened the investigation under Article 170-2, Part 1 of the Criminal Code on March 16," Tomas Bražėnas, a spokesperson for the Vilnius police, said. on Wednesday.
The article establishes liability for the public approval, denial, or gross trivialisation of international crimes, as well as crimes committed by the Soviet Union or Nazi Germany.
The probe follows a March 10 appearance on an OpTV show, where Žemaitaitis referred to the signatories of Lithuania’s Act of Independence as participants in an uprising and described the March 11 events as a “coup” and a “rebellion”.
The politician repeated these claims in a video shared on his Facebook page.
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