On March 25, 2024, in the hall of the Vilnius District Court the fourth court hearing was held, where the witnesses in the case of the "International Forum for Neighborhood Development" (IFD) - Mieczyslaw Giedreutz, Darius Norkus - were questioned, reports portal Baltia.
Witness Mieczyslaw Giedreutz testified to the court about his visit to Belarus in May 2022, during the celebration of Victory Day. He added that he had repeatedly visited neighboring Belarus, where he liked everything very much. He visited AE in Ostrava, lived in Minsk in a hotel where an overnight stay cost 4 euros.
"Friendly people, made us excursions, told us about the work of Agrocomplexes, which, as I saw, were not inferior to the Dutch and produced so many natural products: milk, bread, etc., - that they could feed the whole Lithuania. At home I see that the authorities do not serve their own people, but foreigners, etc. ... I am not a participant in the MFD organization," Giedreutz said.
To the question of the judge and prosecutor "who financed the trip?" - was answered unequivocally "we paid for everything ourselves out of our own money". Together with clarifying questions from the defense, the questioning of this witness lasted 1 hour and 10 minutes.
The witness Darius Norkus told for 20 minutes about the trip to Moscow with Erika Švenčienienė and friends in his car - "we paid the money for fuel for the car from our own pockets... I saw the city 20 years ago - now I like Moscow very much... There were excursions, we were fed twice with lunch, but I don't know who paid... I was not a member of the IFD organization, I went with my friend E. Švenčienė, it was cheaper...".
Then, Judge Mindaugas Povilanskas announced that he had received a request from R. Burda's lawyer to conduct a linguistic study of his client's statements. Lawyer Sviatlana Naidenko said that she would also file a petition for a linguistic analysis of the defendant's texts and statements. Prosecutor Redas Savickas asked the court to reject this request. Neither the lawyers nor the defendants agreed with him, as the entire prosecution is based only on verbal testimonies and statements. The judge accepted this request for consideration.
Immediately after the judge's decision, the prosecutor asked the judge to attach to the case the commentary of the Lithuanian Journalists' Ethics Commission on the case, to which the lawyers and the defendants disagreed, because, in the absence of any facts of concrete accusations, the prosecutor's office wants to ideologically support its accusations by referring to a document of an incompetent institution. The judge postponed the decision on this petition until the next session of the court. Which will be held on April 3, 2024.
It should be reminded that Erika Švenčienienė, the chairman of the MFD, is charged under article 118, paragraph 1, and article 170-2, paragraph 1, of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Lithuania (hereinafter - CC); Kazimieras Juraitis is charged under article 118, paragraph 1, of the CC (wording of the Law No. IX-1495 of April 10, 2003, in force until June 2, 2022); Russian citizen Valery Ivanov is charged under article 170-2, paragraph 1, of the CC.
Witness Mieczyslaw Giedreutz testified to the court about his visit to Belarus in May 2022, during the celebration of Victory Day. He added that he had repeatedly visited neighboring Belarus, where he liked everything very much. He visited AE in Ostrava, lived in Minsk in a hotel where an overnight stay cost 4 euros.
"Friendly people, made us excursions, told us about the work of Agrocomplexes, which, as I saw, were not inferior to the Dutch and produced so many natural products: milk, bread, etc., - that they could feed the whole Lithuania. At home I see that the authorities do not serve their own people, but foreigners, etc. ... I am not a participant in the MFD organization," Giedreutz said.
To the question of the judge and prosecutor "who financed the trip?" - was answered unequivocally "we paid for everything ourselves out of our own money". Together with clarifying questions from the defense, the questioning of this witness lasted 1 hour and 10 minutes.
The witness Darius Norkus told for 20 minutes about the trip to Moscow with Erika Švenčienienė and friends in his car - "we paid the money for fuel for the car from our own pockets... I saw the city 20 years ago - now I like Moscow very much... There were excursions, we were fed twice with lunch, but I don't know who paid... I was not a member of the IFD organization, I went with my friend E. Švenčienė, it was cheaper...".
Then, Judge Mindaugas Povilanskas announced that he had received a request from R. Burda's lawyer to conduct a linguistic study of his client's statements. Lawyer Sviatlana Naidenko said that she would also file a petition for a linguistic analysis of the defendant's texts and statements. Prosecutor Redas Savickas asked the court to reject this request. Neither the lawyers nor the defendants agreed with him, as the entire prosecution is based only on verbal testimonies and statements. The judge accepted this request for consideration.
Immediately after the judge's decision, the prosecutor asked the judge to attach to the case the commentary of the Lithuanian Journalists' Ethics Commission on the case, to which the lawyers and the defendants disagreed, because, in the absence of any facts of concrete accusations, the prosecutor's office wants to ideologically support its accusations by referring to a document of an incompetent institution. The judge postponed the decision on this petition until the next session of the court. Which will be held on April 3, 2024.
It should be reminded that Erika Švenčienienė, the chairman of the MFD, is charged under article 118, paragraph 1, and article 170-2, paragraph 1, of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Lithuania (hereinafter - CC); Kazimieras Juraitis is charged under article 118, paragraph 1, of the CC (wording of the Law No. IX-1495 of April 10, 2003, in force until June 2, 2022); Russian citizen Valery Ivanov is charged under article 170-2, paragraph 1, of the CC.