Lithuania’s Supreme Court to examine Gorbachev's responsibility for January 13 events

VILNIUS – The Supreme Court of Lithuania will examine the responsibility of former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev for the January 13 events, the 15min news portal reported on Monday.

According to the portal, the relatives of people who died in the Soviet army's crackdown on unarmed civilians in Vilnius in January 1991 are seeking to have Gorbachev, who died in 2022, recognized as responsible for failing to take steps to prevent crimes committed by the army when he, as commander-in-chief of the Soviet Armed Forces, had control of the military on January 11-13, 1991.

They also want the former Soviet leader’s successors to be held liable for compensation for non-pecuniary damage if he were proven guilty of murders.

Previously, the lawsuits seeking compensation for non-pecuniary damage were dismissed by the Vilnius District Court and the Vilnius Regional Court.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has decided that the case should be reopened and referred to an expanded panel of seven judges of the Civil Division.

According to the 15min portal, this decision was based on the fact that the practice related to the inheritance of obligations to compensate for non-pecuniary damage is not well established in Lithuanian courts.

Gorbachev had a daughter and two granddaughters.

The Soviet Union used military force in its attempt to remove the legitimate government of Lithuania which declared independence on March 11, 1990.

Fourteen civilians were killed and hundreds more were injured when the Soviet troops stormed the TV Tower and the Radio and Television Committee building in Vilnius in the early hours of January 13, 1991.

Prosecutors investigating the January 13 case refused to examine Gorbachev's responsibility for the events of January 13 or to question him.

In 2017, Vilnius Regional Court sent a summons to Gorbachev to question him as a special witness in the mass trial, but Russia refused to serve it.

A total of 67 former Soviet officials and military officers, including former Soviet Defense Minister Dmitry Yazov, who died in 2020, have been convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the January 13 case.

The majority of them were handed prison sentences in absentia as Russia and Belarus refused to extradite them.