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.
