Vilnius District Court continued the case against the founders of the International Neighborhood Forum

On March 3, 2025, the Vilnius District Court continued to hear the case of possible assistance in actions against Lithuania, the Baltic portal reported. The witness, who participated in a trip to Belarus together with the founders of the liquidated International Neighborhood Forum, said at the trial that his goal was to convey the idea of peace to the neighboring country.

“I saw nothing wrong in going to Belarus and expressing my position for peace,” Arturas Lukianciukas told the court Thursday.

Erika Švenčienė, Kazimieras Juraitis and former leader of the Unity organization Valery Ivanov are charged in the case. They are being tried for possible assistance to another state in actions against Lithuania, as well as for publicly supporting, denying or grossly belittling international and Soviet crimes.

Lukianciukas claimed that he first met Švenčienienė during a trip to Belarus and paid for it himself. However, he later denied these claims and said that he had only paid for food and fuel.

The witness said that he learned about the trip from social media. According to him, Švenčiūnienė handled the formalities of the trip.

Lukianciukas also said that the participants of the organization were received in Belarus as a presidential delegation. He also claimed that he did not experience any moral pressure in Belarus before returning to Lithuania.

Members of the liquidated association, founded by Algirdas Palackis, convicted of espionage, visited Belarus in 2022. At that time, the head of the Lithuanian State Security Department Darius Jauniškis said that people traveling to hostile countries to “establish” friendly relations “understand perfectly well what they are doing.

Representatives of the International Neighborhood Forum also visited Moscow.

“My rights have been violated since elementary school and nothing has changed in 35 years. (...) I would go to Belarus and Moscow again,” the witness said, emphasizing that he faced mobbing by Lithuanian services.

Lukianciukas called the accusations ordered and said that all those present at the meeting were innocent.

At the end of the hearing, Schwenčienienė's lawyer asked the judge to allow her to go on a “business trip to Moscow” from May 8 to 10 to celebrate May 9, when Russia commemorates victory in the war against Nazi Germany.

The prosecutor asked that such a request be denied because the reasons given were deemed insufficient. The court is expected to rule on this issue next week.

Recall, as reported by the Prosecutor General's Office in December last year, the data collected in the course of the pre-trial investigation allow us to confidently assert that members of the liquidated association Shvenčienienė and Juraitis, acting as part of a group of accomplices, in 2022 in the territory of Lithuania, Belarus and Russia repeatedly helped Russia and Belarus and their organizations to act against Lithuania.

Švenčienienė is also accused of publicly supporting, denying or grossly belittling international and Soviet crimes. According to the investigation, early last year she participated in a program about the events of January 13 together with the defendant Ivanov.

Švenčienienė, Juraitis and Ivanov deny their guilt.

The Criminal Code provides for imprisonment of two to seven years for assisting another state in committing acts against Lithuania.