Baltic States – CIS, History, Lithuania

Povilaitis has earlier attempted to persuade the Lithuanian law-enforcement into opening a separate probe of Gorbachev's role and list him as special witness. In their refusal to start a separate investigation, Lithuanian prosecutors said that the available evidence did not lead to a conclusion that Gorbachev was aware of the intended military action and failed to take measures to prevent it.

Prosecutors also stated that efforts had been made since 1992 to get answers from Gorbachev about the developments of January 1991, however, the attempts were vain. Prosecutor Daiva Skorupskaite noted that listing Gorbachev as special witness was not possible, as he refuses to cooperate with Lithuanian prosecutors and there are no other ways of putting a citizen of a foreign country to appear in Lithuania to testify.

Povilaitis, in his turn, maintained that the Soviet president could have known but consciously ignored the information about his subordinates' plans to engage in war crimes and committing them, furthermore, did not do anything to prevent them.

Part of the January 13 coup trial is currently heard at a Vilnius court.

This year marks 25 years since Jan. 13 of 1991 when 14 unarmed civilians were killed in an armed attack of the Press Palace, the TV Tower and the Radio and Television Committee building.

Some 65 defendants stand charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, many of them in absentia , as they are hiding in Russia or Belarus. Merely two are present in hearings. The trial is one of the biggest trials in the history of Lithuania in terms of the size and the number of suspects.

Six persons were sentenced in the trial in 1999 for founding anti-government organizations and other crimes.