The Lustration Commission decided that Algimantas Matulevicius, chairman of the Parliamentary National Defense and Security Committee, did not collaborate with Soviet special security forces. Dalia Kuodyte, chairman of the commission, said after the committee's meeting on March 23 that the commission does not have sufficient evidence to confirm the accusations made against Matulevicius by Arvydas Pocius, head of the Lithuanian State Security Department, who in a speech to Parliament at the beginning of March announced that Matulevicius had collaborated with the KGB. Pocius was speaking to Parliament just before the vote on his own dismissal. Lawmakers voted to keep him in his post.
India's Minister of State for External Affairs Anand Sharma met with Prime Minister Gediminas Kirkilas on March 26 in what was the first high-level visit of an Indian minister to a Baltic country. India and Lithuania are seeking to ramp up trade ties and plan to sign an agreement on double taxation avoidance and investment protection, the Lithuanian government's information bureau reported after the meeting. The two countries have also agreed to set up joint ventures and asked their business communities to promote bilateral economic relations. India-Lithuania trade reached $40 million last year.
The family of a Lithuanian woman who was deported from the country and spent five years in a Soviet prison camp has sued Moscow for 500,000 euros in damages, BNS reported on March 22. In a complaint to the a district court, the family said that the late Ona Puskunigiene suffered human rights abuse in prison in Siberia and emotional harm in the 20 years following her release until her death in 1976. Her relatives said they had also suffered because of her 1951 incarceration on charges of "anti-Soviet activity." Puskunigiene was sentenced to 25 years in a Gulag but was released five years later under an amnesty granted after the death of Joseph Stalin. The Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that Puskunigiene had been a victim of Soviet oppression and that her sentence was illegal.
The head of Lithuania's MTV music television channel has been fined by the country's media watchdog for broadcasting the "Popetown" series, the Radio and Television Commission announced on March 22. Marius Veselis, director of the channel, was given the maximum possible fine, 3,000 litas (868.8 euros). "Popetown" describes itself as a series that "takes you into the side-splittingly surreal world of the Vatican." The Radio and Television Commission said it made its decision based on the conclusions of Lithuania's journalistic ethics inspector, who had deemed that "Popetown" incites hatred against the Catholic Church and could have a negative influence on younger viewers. MTV spokeswoman Ema Segal said in a statement that the channel will appeal the commission's decision, just as it has appealed the decision of the ethics inspector.
