VILNIUS - Mykolas Burokevicius, an organizer of a failed coup d'etat and the January 1991 massacre during Lithuania's independence movement, was released from prison on Jan. 13 after serving a 12 year sentence.
Ironically, the 78-year-old was set free the day that Lithuania was celebrating the Day of Freedom Defenders 's the 15th anniversary of unarmed resistance against Soviet tanks.
The media was beside itself over Burokevicius' release, but leaders shrugged off the emotional reaction and said it would be best ignored.
"I attach little importance to this event. This is a fact in a legal state - a person was convicted and served his sentence. We are following legal standards and are releasing him," President Valdas Adamkus told journalists.
"In my understanding, it is best to ignore the fact, because it is not a significant thing to be raised to such a level," he said.
Prime Minister Algirdas Brazauskas said the Day of Freedom Defenders should be dedicated to honoring them and not speaking about Soviet plotters.
"The entire country is marking Jan. 13, and we can only speak about this. I tend not to speak about Burokevicius at all. I believe this is not a significant event worth speaking about," the prime minister told journalists.
On Jan. 13, 1991, 14 people were killed and hundreds were injured during an attempt by Soviet troops and the KGB to overthrow Lithuania's legitimate authorities.
Burokevicius was named as one of the perpetrators in Vilnius' tragic January 1991 events. Communist party members Jermalavicius, Juozas Kuolelis, Leonas Bartosevicius, and Jaroslavas Prokopovicius, who also participated in the coup, were sentenced to imprisonment together with Burokevicius in 1999.
In August 1999, the Vilnius District Court sentenced Burokevicius to 12 years in prison for organizing murder and grievous bodily harm, establishing anti-state organizations and committing other crimes. Burokevicius and Juozas Jermalavicius, the head of the pro-Soviet Lithuanian Communist Party office, were detained in Belarus in 1993 and taken to Lithuania.
The suspect had been awaiting his ruling in prison, so by the time the ruling was handed down, he had already served half of his sentence.
Burokevicius' 12-year jail term ended on Jan. 15. Under Lithuanian law, a convict is released on the last weekday of his term if it expires on a nonworking day.
All of these men were released from prison long ago: Burokevicius is the last. Since he was found guilty of committing crimes against the government, Burokevicius had no right to be released before his term expired.
Jermalavicius, one the best-known perpetrators of the failed coup, completed serving his jail term in January 2002, and left for Russia shortly after his release.
The independence declaration adopted by the Lithuanian Reconstituent Seimas on March 11, 1990 's after more than 50 years of Soviet rule - triggered a chain reaction, which led to the collapse of the Soviet empire in the fall of 1991.
Although the Soviet troops managed to seize the TV Tower and the Media House, they failed to attack the premises of the Supreme Council - the Reconstituent Seimas - guarded by thousands of civilians.
The Communist Party's activity in Lithuania was banned in 1991 at the decision of the Reconstituent Seimas.
