Lietuva in brief - 2011-12-08

An Irishman sentenced in October to 12 years in a Lithuanian prison for attempting to smuggle arms to the paramilitary group Real IRA has appealed the verdict, his lawyer said Friday, reports AFP. “Today Michael Campbell’s appeal was handed to the court,” Ingrida Botyriene said. “Campbell asked the court to quash his conviction and acquit him. He maintains his position that he was set up.” Prosecutor Gedgaudas Norkunas said earlier he had also appealed the Oct. 21 sentence because it fell short of the 16-year term he had sought. No date has been set for the appeal hearing. Campbell, 39, was convicted of attempted smuggling, aiding a terrorist organization and illegal possession of arms. He was arrested in January 2008 in Vilnius as he met a Lithuanian agent who posed as an arms dealer and went on trial in August 2009. He repeatedly insisted he was innocent and had been framed by British and Lithuanian intelligence. Campbell did not deny seeking to purchase arms but declined to reveal for whom, although he insisted they were not for the Real Irish Republican Army. He said he was drawn into a money-making scheme by prosecution witness Robert Jardine - identified in court as a British agent and a smuggler.

It has been proposed in the Seimas to recognize Palestine’s independence, with the country’s borders as they were in 1967, reports ELTA. This draft resolution, ‘On the Recognition of the Independent State of Palestine,’ was registered by MP Egidijus Klumbys. The proposal is to recognize Palestine as an independent state on the basis of “universally accepted every nation’s right of decision” and the understanding of “the wish of Palestinians to live in an independent state.” The draft resolution points out that Iceland, despite the disapproval of other countries, was the first to recognize Lithuania’s independence on Feb. 11, 1991, six moths before the USSR collapsed.  The initiators of the document underline “the importance of the solidarity between smaller countries while making important political and diplomatic decisions.”