The Klaipeda District Prosecutor’s Office has sent to court a criminal case against an alleged FSB officer whom Lithuanian investigators accuse of taking part in the “long-term systematic organization and coordination” of information gathering in Lithuania for Russia. Lithuanian outlet LRT reported this, citing the country’s Prosecutor General’s Office.
The trial will be held in absentia, the report said. The authorities have not disclosed the defendant’s name. According to investigators, from 2014 to 2020 he supervised a group that collected information about strategic facilities, the work of state institutions, the border protection system, social processes, and people who took part in various events.
Under Lithuanian law, the defendant faces up to 15 years in prison.
Earlier convictions in the same case
Two Lithuanian citizens had already been convicted in the same case for spying for Russia. Aleksej Greicius was sentenced to four years in prison, while Mindaugas Tunikaitis received one and a half years.
LRT says Tunikaitis lived in a border region and frequently traveled to Russia’s Kaliningrad region, where he was met by an FSB officer who, according to investigators, gradually recruited him. In court, Tunikaitis admitted guilt and expressed remorse.
Investigators also say that Greicius organized cultural and public events in Lithuania, collected information about participants and observers, took photographs and recorded video at those events, and then passed the materials to the accused in exchange for payment.
According to the investigation, the people involved communicated through gaming apps, social networks, and other pre-arranged channels.