17 year-old Medininkai tragedy case to be closed

Jul 31, 2008
In cooperation with BNS

VILNIUS- Lithuanian prosecutors hope to close the investigation of the 17-year-old murder case of seven Lithuanian officers by the end of this year. The main suspects being former Soviet Union's OMON special purpose police hitmen.

On the eve of the 17th anniversary since the tragedy, Prosecutor of the Organized Crime and Corruption Department under the Prosecutor General's Office of Lithuania Algimantas Kliuknka told the press that investigations in the case will be concluded by Nov. or Dec. of this year.

The prosecutor also announced Russia's refusal to extradite suspects, former OMON members Ceslov Mlynik and Andrej Laktionov to Lithuania, because the men are  Russian citizens, saying that countries do not extradite their own citizens under existing agreements.

The decision on the extradition of another suspected OMON hitman Aleksander Ryzhov is still pending. Ryzhov is currently detained on suspicions of having committed another crime.

In memory of the attack on July 31, 1991, remembrance services were held to mark year seventeen of the tragedy.

 Only one of the customs officers survived the attack, albeit having suffered heavy injuries.

Only one of the suspects in the Medininkai murder case, namely 40-year-old Latvian citizen Konstantin Mikhailov (formerly Nikulin), has been arrested in connection with the case. Mikhailov has been presented with charges of  heavy crime, i.e. first degree murder of two or more persons. The suspect denies having participated in the killings.

A pre-trial investigation had established that the first seven police and customs officers of independent Lithuaniawere killed and the sole survivor Tomas Sernas was seriously wounded as a result of serving their duty.

The data collected in the process of the pre-trial investigation allow the prosecutors to suspect that the crime was committed by hitmen of the former Soviet Union's militia special operations unit OMON from Riga, who were visiting the OMON base in Vilnius on July 30, 1991. Another OMON militia group which arrived to Vilnius from Riga blasted explosives that same night near the Soviet Union's 42nd division headquarters building on Sapiega Street.

The investigation of the manslaughter at Medininkai checkpoint is slowed by the fact that the suspects and a lot of important witnesses reside in Russia.

The seven officers are believed to have been killed in Medininkai to cause confusion at the customs of Lithuania that had just declared its independence.


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